


Smoke and the Blood of a Man

by fivefootthree



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Feelings, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Feels, Whump, bringing Jack back
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2019-10-24 17:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17708810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fivefootthree/pseuds/fivefootthree
Summary: Getting Jack back takes years. It's the toughest game of chess Matilda Webber ever plays.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Smoke at the heart of it, smoke and the blood of a man.  
> A runner of fire ran in it, ran out, ran somewhere else,  
> And left—smoke and the blood of a man  
> And the finished steel, chilled and blue.
> 
> Carl Sandburg, "Smoke and Steel"

Matilda Webber is a chess player and a master strategist. So when she received a courtesy notification just after leaving Olvero’s that Jack had been recalled and ordered to report for duty in 60 hours, she hadn’t been too surprised. 

In fact, she’d spent time since Jack had first told her the name unravelling the threads of a decade-old story and, in putting them back together again, had foreseen the possibility that Jack would be recalled, likely to lead the team again to catch him.

She waits an hour before she calls. When he answers, he sounds like half of himself, all the exuberance and exaggeration sucked out of him.

“Hey Matty. You heard?” 

“Yeah. How’re you holding up?” she asks.

“Umm…” his voice trails off, and she can hear him swallow.

There’s a lump in her throat too. 

“Come to the War Room, Jack.” She says. “We’ll make battle plans.”

He sniffs, pauses a moment, casts about for a joke. But instead he finds himself exhaling hard. “God, I wish you’d been with me the first time around, Matty. We’d have got him square to rights and all this never would have happened.”

“You did get him, Jack. It’s not your fault he survived,” she reminds him. 

“I know, I know,” he agrees. “It’s just—it was so bad, Matty. The months—hell, the years we spent chasing him, the leads we missed by minutes, the people we lost. It was hell on the soul, and I am – fucking terrified – of having to dive into that again.”

“Come in, Jack,” she urges him. “We shouldn’t be talking about this over the phone.”

“What is there to talk about, Matty?” he asks. “It’s a done deal – I’m not getting out of it, and there’s nothing you can do.”

“Don’t be fatalistic, Jack, I thought Mac had trained that out of you. Get yourself to the Phoenix. I can make it an order if I have to – I am still your boss.”

“Okay, geez boss lady, I’m coming,” he says. There’s a little bit of his familiar grumble in it. “I’m on my way.”

In the meantime, she sits back in her office chair and after a bit of thought, makes some phone calls.

But when he comes, he’s gotten himself under control and he’s cagey. In fact, Matty has never seen him like this. Oh, she’d seen the Delta operator and she knew how lethal and intelligent he was underneath all the hot air, but this was a Jack profoundly ill at ease, with all senses on alert. Some of the tension leaves his frame when she blinds the windows and locks down the room. She pours them both stiff whiskies and sits on the couch.

“Sit down, Jack,” she says when he just stands there. He obeys, dropping into the seat as though someone had cut his strings, and takes the whisky, finally relaxing into the seat as the warmth of the drink hits his throat. She intentionally lets the silence lengthen and settle before she speaks again.

“Tell me everything you can about Kovacs and this task force,” she says. 

“Kovacs is the scariest piece of shit I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting,” Jack says without hesitation. “Murdoc at least can’t help it, but Tiberius Kovacs…everything he does is intentional, every drop of blood shed accounted for. We—I got close, Matty. Last time. Three times, we missed him by minutes. The last time it was so close, he left behind blueprints for his next attack. He moved it up 36 hours to compensate – it happened that night and—he—”

His voice breaks. He swallows, runs his palms over his face, and braces himself. “It was a village in Georgia, a power play to impress Russia. As far as we could make out, he raided it. Bombed the village, and took the kids for human trafficking and child slavery. We were forty minutes behind, and by the time we got there the village was—it was just— _dark_. Blood in the streets, again. Pitted with holes, and so quiet. Not even sobs as the villagers began collecting their dead, and it wasn’t all from the bombs, either. We found women who—well. In some ways it was worse than Afghanistan.

He stops, takes another swallow of the whiskey.

“We caught him fleeing Georgia by a sheer stroke of dumb luck. He had shot the police chief in the village in the head, but the poor bastard held on long enough to tell us everything he overheard – mainly about getting to their exfil point along the border with Turkey. We found them, set up shop within shooting distance, and I know I got him. It ate at all of us that we didn’t find a body by the time we made it to the house they were holed up in minutes later, but I know I saw him go down.”

“My God, Jack. I’m sorry.”

His eyes finally cut down to her and soften. “Thanks, Matty. But – I have to do it right this time.”

“What details can you give me on the man himself?” she asks.

He shrugs. “Nothing you can’t find out for yourself. He’d be in his fifties by now. He’s American, actually, don’t let the name fool you. Unmarried – as far as we can make out, though of course that intel might be out of date. No family – parents and two aunts died in a suspicious car accident, no siblings or cousins. Made his way up from drug dealer to head of an empire. He is after power, and he will stop at nothing to get it, Matty. Can only imagine what devilry he’s gotten up to since I thought we put him down.”

“How did he resurface?”

“A pair of CIA analysts tracked spending patterns to old contacts of his. Once enough money got moved around to three of his old lieutenants they flagged it and sent it on. Some further poking around uncovered his whole damn operation coming back to life again, and a whole series of connections between power plays in Europe and Asia that track back to him. That picture I showed you? Ten days old. The CIA spook who took it used to be a pal of mine and passed it on to me.”

“Who’s on the team?” 

“I haven’t finished reading the docket yet; I just barely cracked it open, to be honest,” he says, patting a bag next to him. “As far as I know, it’s an international team of eight people. The only name I’ve got is Steve McGarrett, a former Navy SEAL and a friend of mine from way back when – he reached out to me right after we got notified; I was talking to him on the way here. He’d been on the original op, and was standing next to me when I took the shot.”

Matty is a little relieved. “I know Steve. He’s good to have on your team.”

“One of the best,” Jack agrees.

Matty takes a moment to phrase her next question. She knows that Jack had been tapped to lead the team; the assignment shifts their relationship in this case. She’s neither boss, friend, nor colleague, but she would like Jack to consider her and her resources within the Phoenix as an asset.

“I can have Mac mobilized to go with you,” she says. “I doubt even my connections will get the whole team cleared to go with you since Riley and Bozer aren’t military, but you can liaise with us. Everything we’ve got is at your disposal.”

The look Jack gives her is both grateful and a little wild. “While I’m more grateful than you can know for that, Matty, I’m going to have to ask you – to beg you – to keep Mac, Riley, and Bozer as far away from this as possible.”

A glimmer passes through Matty’s eyes. “You don’t want our help?”

“Matty…You know how I feel about this team. Of course I want your help; I’d give my left eyeteeth for it! But my role at the Phoenix has always been protection, and through it this team…there is nothing more precious to me than them, and nothing that defines me more than doing everything I can to keep them safe, whether physically, emotionally, or mentally.”

“What are you saying, Jack?”

“I’m saying that if they come, I won’t be able to do my job. I won’t be able to take out Kovacs, because—”

Well. Because killing and caretaking are two opposites that he can’t hold together in himself at the same time, and if he tries he will succeed at neither. Because he can’t imagine leading the three of them through all the darkness and evil he knew the team would have to slog through – maybe for years – to nab the guy. Because he can’t imagine seeing Mac’s integrity, Bozer’s sunshine, and Riley’s strength worn down and taken away from them by it; it would ruin him, and take all his energy to reverse, and he would fail, again, in taking Kovacs down. And if Kovacs found out – and the fucker _would_ find out – he would most certainly retaliate against them, against his kids. And – to do this thing – he would have to revert to being a Jack that he hated: buttoned down, focused, sharp, bitter, and _willing to kill_. He’d certainly killed while protecting the team, but that was different. That was kill or be killed. This was flat out assassination, and while he wasn’t too concerned about Kovacs getting his due proces, the idea of being _that_ Jack around his kids makes his stomach roil. Suddenly, he finds himself begging—

“Promise me. Matty, promise me, please, you won’t put them on it, promise me—“

It’s only when Matty grabs his hand that he realizes he is trembling. “Here’s what I promise, Jack, because you are an important part of this team and it won’t be whole without you.” She speaks so softly that he finds himself stilling just to hear her. “Are you listening?”

He nods.

“I promise to keep an eye on you. If I know the team at all, I won’t be the only one, at least until you get into actual deep cover, and maybe even then Riley will break through. I promise to keep an eye on them and I will keep them off your task force. But if we get any actionable intel – and I will be following closely – we _will_ act on it, and I _will_ give your team here the job; you can’t – and I won’t – take away the opportunity to protect one of their own from them. And they are trained agents, Jack, good ones, even Bozer.”

Something in Jack loosens and drains away. He had, he realized, been subconsciously gearing up for a fight with Matty – damned if he knew why – and she had defused it, keeping his family safe. _Their_ family, he corrects himself. Keeping them safe, keeping him part of it, not abandoning him since he had to leave. He drags in a deep breath and nods. “I appreciate that, Matty.”

“You do realize that as far as I’m concerned this means you still work for me, right?” she says, mock stern, and God does he love this woman. 

“Ma’am yes ma’am,” he says, a lump rising up in his throat. “I plan to stick around as long as you let me.”

She nods, the movement brusque. “Ok then. I take it that the dossier is in that bag you brought with you?”

“Yes it is, but Matty, it’s—”

She cuts him off. “I made some phone calls before you came and got permission to be read in. By you. You can check with your superiors.”

He takes the tablet she hands him but pauses before he hits the call button (on the already pre-set number, he realizes). “You…want me to read you in?”

She understands the question. _Why wait for me when you spoke to my commanding officer?_

“It’s your op, Jack. I wasn’t going to go over your head.”

His eyes grow wet in spite of himself and he looks away. “Matty. Matilda. _Thank you._ ”

“You’re welcome. Now get a move on, we’ve got a lot to do before you ship out. Including, damn it all, one last case, and you’re not gonna like it.”

He makes the call.

As he’s on the line, Matty sends out for food and coffee. 

It’s gonna be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, Jack gets through the case.

She sends him home around five in the morning. In the past ten hours, they’d pored over the available intel, sussed out some leads, contacted the other members of the team, and hashed out the outlines of a plan to flush Kovac out of hiding from, their intel suggested, somewhere in St. Petersburg: a series of strategic ops that would seem to offer Kovac a leg up into US-European relations. If everything went to plan – which of course it wouldn’t, but a girl could dream – Kovac would be down in two years. She was proud of their plan; it was complex and risky, but utillized the skill sets of all Jack’s team members and spanned months. It would be up to Jack and his team to work out the details and track the ripples from each op, but they could do it; she couldn’t have picked a finer team herself.

But though Jack feels considerably better for Matty’s bracing collaboration, he is still far too keyed up to sleep. Matty told him to come in at 10 if he wanted to be a part of one last op with the Phoenix, and he agreed. One last hurrah with the kids, and then he’d leave.

He is already dreading the thought of telling them – has, in fact, had it dragging on him all night long. Even while the vast majority of his attention had been on hashing things out with Matty, there was one small corner of his mind relentlessly thinking about how to approach this.

He has to tell Mac, he decides. Right away. He’s not going to add to the list of people who’ve left Mac without warning—but he is, his heart aches. He promised never to leave, and now he’s doing just that. Breaking that promise starts an ache in his chest that promises never to leave.

He calls Mac and invites him for breakfast and a talk. 

He’ll tell the others later, he decides. Maybe after this op, so that they won’t be distracted by worrying.

He makes himself a cup of coffee and turns on the news while he waits, and he knows, he knows from deep inside his gut, that the scene that meets him is thanks to Kovac. Eighty-one dead! 

_It almost makes it easier to leave,_ he thinks dumbly once the blood has stopped rushing inside his head. _I have to stop him. It’s my job. I have to._

It spills out of him when Mac comes in. No hello, no nothing, just, “They got it wrong!” He tells him all he dares, swallows back a lump when without hesitation Mac volunteers himself for the task force, and declines, as firmly and as gently as he can. 

He sees when it hits Mac, the realization that Jack was leaving Mac behind. He hopes to God that Mac gets it, that when he asks him to hear him out and tells him he _needs him here,_ it’s intentional. That he and Matty have planned for this. 

But he doesn’t dare tell him. He needs Mac to hit pause on the part of his brain that’ll already be racing ahead trying to work the problem from here. He needs a head start on Mac and the others. Matty will bring them in when the time is right; they’ll be safe, they’ll still have his back, and they’ll be his secret weapon. He drags in a breath and takes in the floundering young man in front of him.

“Mac, I’m sorry,” he breathes out, feeling an ache unfurl and set up lodgings in him, and when Mac’s eyes flood with tears he thinks, _fucking hell_. He’d rip his heart out of his chest and give it to his boy if he could – but keeping him and Riley and Bozer as far away from that monster Kovac was not something he would compromise on. He blinks tears away as he pivots away from Mac’s face, pulling in a breath and running his hand through his hair.

But he could, he thinks, give Mac a better explanation. He owes him that. He could at least rip his chest open and make sure Mac understood why Jack was so adamant about keeping them away, even if he couldn’t tell them about Matty and where they came in. 

“Mac,” he says, turning back to his boy, who is now leaning back against the island behind him. Mac’s eyes lift up to meet Jack’s gaze. “I shot Kovac three years before I met you in Afghanistan. That makes – hell – almost ten years since his assassination. I had been following him twelve years before that. 

Those twelve years were concentrated hell. Sure, we weren’t exclusively tracking him, but he still took the bulk of our time. A lot of us burned out, man. It was, it was like, you MIA with El Noche or Murdoc bad, but without backup. Without an agency, without knowing your family was turning over every stone to _find_ you. Without knowing that I was coming for you. And that was for twelve fucking years! 

And in those years. The things we saw, Mac. The things we _did_. You know, the nights I don’t sleep? Like as not it’s because that’s what’s haunting me. I never told you because I—couldn’t—“

His voice breaks hard, and he swallows. Mac steps closer and squeezes Jack’s shoulder, and the kindness in the gesture makes the lump in his throat grow.

“I would rather face that over a hundred times than let you, Riley, and Bozer within a hundred miles of that kind of darkness and evil. I would never be able to do my _job_ on this task force, because as far as I’m concerned protecting you three will always be my highest priority, and if you’re there?—I’d—I couldn’t be Jack the sniper and Jack the—the—”

“The dad,” Mac supplies. It stops Jack in his tracks. He never—

“It’s okay, Jack,” Mac continues, seeing the look on his face. “We actually – it means a lot, you know. What you do for us. Especially me and Riley—we take so many cues from you. I mean, Bozer loves you too, of course—”

But now Jack is crying for real, snot clogging up his nose and tears spilling out of his eyes as he steadies himself by taking Mac’s other arm. “What did you say?” he asks, feeling stupid for needing the affirmation, but – 

Mac pauses, his eyes intensely blue. “You are far more a father to me than mine ever could dream of. It took me longer than it should have to get it, but I love you, Jack,” The words of affection drop from him far more easily than Jack had ever dreamed they would, and he feels them slide around in his heart soft and slow – armor for the fight ahead, the best kind of armor. He swallows and folds Mac into a hug. 

“You mean the world to me, son. Thank you. I’m so proud you see me that way. I’m so sorry I have to leave,” he says. 

Mac pulls away just far enough to look Jack in the eye again. “ _Come back¸_ you hear? Finish this, and come back. We’ll be waiting, and keeping our eyes out.”

“As soon as I can, I swear,” he promises, grasping Mac around both shoulders. “In the meantime, you guys keep each other safe, okay? This new girl, she’s tough as they come and good at her job, but you watch out for each other, you hear me?

Mac chuckles wetly. “I hear you, Jack. We’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.”

“Okay then,” Jack says, and takes another deep breath. “Come on. I’ll buy you breakfast before we have to report in.”

“Matty’s making you do another case now?” Mac asks as they walk towards the door. 

“I volunteered,” he said. “One last show with my kids,” he says. “And Mac – don’t tell the others, ok? I have to do that. Matty knows.”

Mac nods unhappily, and they walk out the door. 

<><><><><><><><><>

 _Aw, hell,_ Jack thinks. Matty was right, he didn’t like it. He wasn’t gonna like any case with a dad and his kid, to be fair. Especially for his last—last?!—mission with the Phoenix. _Fair to who,_ he asked, annoyed with himself. _Matty? Olvera? Himself, one Jack Dalton, coming to terms with leaving his own kids while he goes chasing a monster?_

Riley’s comment about Olvera abandoning his girl tears another hole in his heart—out of the corner of his eye he sees even Mac wince sympathetically. There’s a small part of his brain telling him it’s not like that; he’s not abandoning them; it would be selfish to bring them along – but _hot damn_ he feels like everything he promised himself he would never be, after seeing what Elwood did to Riley, what James had done to Mac. They aren’t his to think of that way, but it’s impossible not to want to cringe in shame.

But he squares his shoulders. He can’t decline – doesn’t really want to, to be honest; he would hate himself for declining, even if it was technically an option. It’s his responsibility to fix his messes, and he’d be damned if he let that son of a bitch Kovac get away with anything else. He hauls in a deep breath and tunes back in just to hear Mac back Matty up. He can tell from her thanks that Mac’s support braces her the same way it had braced him a hundred times. 

They stop at wardrobe and makeup before taking the Phoenix’s hottest cars out. Matty tosses him the keys to the Tesla with a fond wink, and he makes his family all pose in front of it for a selfie before they drive over to the church. It’s in Pebble Beach, only a short drive over, but it feels like ages as Bozer and Riley’s banter fills the car. Mac pitches in, but it’s half-hearted at best. Matty is quiet the whole way there.

He opens the door for Riley when they arrive, contriving to let the others go in first. He wants to cherish it, a last few moments alone with nothing less than his daughter. He feels his heart swell as she takes his arm and allows him to lead her up into the church. His heart pangs with wanting as he sees the pretty decorations leading up the aisle and he is scared, suddenly, that he will miss walking Riley down the aisle. He wants to be there. He has to be there. He’ll fight Elwood for the right to walk her down the aisle, he will. Although, he reckons, it would be all right if they both walked her down. One on each arm. If she wanted it.

(He wasn’t, exactly, hoping that she would only want him. He wasn’t. Not really.)

Of course, his smart girl picks up on his and Mac’s tells. God, if she presses more he’ll tell her everything, and that would be awful, but—

That little sniff. God bless Bozer, with all his feelings bleeding all over the place. It’s the perfect distraction, he thinks, and he wonders if it doesn’t help Mac too – human contact with his oldest friend. With his brother. He loves that Mac couches it as science. As distraction. _God bless and protect and keep that soft heart of yours, brother,_ he thinks, first about Mac, then about Bozer too.

Riley’s arm still tucked into his, Mac and Bozer hanging on to each other. He could, he thinks, believe that Olvera really is there for his girl after all. He’ll do it too, he promises himself. If it comes to it. Whatever it takes, to be at their weddings, any of them. 

Jack is wiped out by the time they get to the receptions. So many emotions, so many moods, up and down. He never was a stress eater, but he beelines to the post without a view of the dance floor because he’s gonna cry if he watches Camilla and Alonzo dance. It just so happens to be the post with direct access to the food tables, which are really, _really_ good. Like, can’t remember the last time food tasted this good kind of good. He barely notices himself packing the food away, and decides he doesn’t care anyway, he’s gonna be on MREs for the foreseeable future.

And yet, when it all goes south, he’s ready for it, dropping the dumb schmuck routine Mac had been letting him get away with and making it to Bozer in record time. He hates, though, how easy it is to slip back into the Delta persona in spite of himself, following up on Bozer’s tackle (that tackle was picture perfect) and taking in the phone with its open line on the ground. 

In some ways, he’s grateful to split up. It’s an opportunity to spend a bit of one-on-one time with the newest member of their team and maybe get the chance to tell him he’s leaving.

He doesn’t, but in bantering between taking down the fourth and fifth bad guys he tells him, “Bozer, you’re all heart,” and he hopes the young man will remember this, later. “Your greatest strength is that you’re all heart, man. Don’t ever change that. A strong heart. That’s what you bring, and on this team, that’s what makes us _good._ That’s what Mac and Riley will need from you. But you know. Don’t ever stop your combat training either.”

Bozer is puzzled, but rolls with it. “Uhm, thanks, Jack!”

He _does_ understand it, after. Bruce Willis be damned – Jack is asking Bozer to look out for the most precious things in his world, Mac and Riley, and he is trusting him to do it, and Bozer mercifully understands and responds with all his usual warmth. 

But then Olvera is dead and they are running towards the ballroom to corral all the party guests back in. He _adores_ Matty’s face when they go in with guns blazing, finding himself grateful for the bandanna that hides the fact that he is nearly crying with laughter at her expressions. It is a catharsis wholly unexpected, and he tucks the memory away to pull out and savor later. More armor for what’s to come, he thinks. 

His tension ratchets up again when they realize that there was another killer, hidden, on the loose. But his heart full out stops when Mac tells them over comms about Riley’s puncture wound and poisoning. The trembling starts instantaneously as ice-cold fear replaces the blood in his veins, and he sees the horror on his face echoed on Bozer and Matty’s faces. He’s never been more grateful for Mac’s ability to set fear aside and keep thinking; the edge of fear in Mac’s voice doesn’t keep him from moving past it and just – keeping on thinking. He can barely keep his gun up and does his level best to keep it from shaking as the seconds crawl by. His head is buzzing, but finally Mac’s voice cuts through the noise. “She’s ok,” he says, and if Jack takes a second to sag in relief and take a shuddering breath, well, Bozer covers for him. But there’s no time to go running to his girl before Mac is pulling the reveal, and he is horrified that the girl’s grandmother is the culprit, horrified and disgusted by how that sweet-looking face morphs into something evil and wicked.

It hits him that this will be his reality now. Or, his reality again. _Oh, God._ He had gotten out of the CIA after finishing up Kovac last time, and the emotional fallout had been so devastating he’d drifted for a year before deciding that the army would kick his ass into gear again. It was there he had met Mac, and meeting the punk had put fresh life into him.

He’s glad the case is over. It had hit him at his most vulnerable – but still, he stays behind a moment to reach out to Camilla, standing next to her bloodied husband, their arms interlinked. To give them both credit, they are standing tall, even though the man’s nose is obviously broken and Camilla is dashing tears away from her cheeks. 

“Senora Olvera – I’m sorry, I don’t know your married name,” Jack says, apologetic. “It’s none of my business, but I wanted to say I’m sorry for your loss and for your ruined wedding day, and I’m sorry for the part we had to play in it. But – for what it’s worth – I have no doubt that if your father had seen the strength you faced this whole fiasco with, he would have been even prouder of the woman you are. It’s small consolation, I know, but you should know that we all noticed it.”

Camilla’s tears are flowing afresh, but she musters a sweet smile up for Jack anyway as her husband reaches out for a handshake. “Thank you for your kindness, and-even though it’s terrible-I’m glad you caught my father’s killer so quickly.”

He nods, smiles back, and follows the rest of his team out the door. More Phoenix agents are everywhere, dealing with clean-up, but he beelines for the car, tossing the keys to Bozer and asking him with a look to drive. He needs to—

But Mac is already on it, sitting next to Riley in the middle row and wrapping her up in his jacket. She takes the opportunity to lean tiredly on his shoulder, so Jack watches with his eyes growing wet as Mac eases back in his seat and takes her with him. When Riley notices, she smiles sleepily, shifts a little, and pats the seat next to her. Jack melts and slides in next to her on shaking legs. He clasps the hand she reaches out for him and kisses it before tucking it into his arm and holding on tight. He knows Bozer is keeping an eye on them all in the rearview mirror, and Matty is openly twisted around in her seat next to him, checking up on them. 

It’s over but it isn’t over, not really. Jack is exhausted – almost wishes that the car ride could go on longer, he isn’t ready for it all to end. But Riley needs to get checked out at medical, and frankly Mac looks like he’d been through the wringer. He had, after all, Jack thinks. It must have been beyond terrible to see Riley lying there and to know that her survival hinged on him. Though, Jack reflects again, Mac had been saving his life and the lives of countless others on the turn of a dime for years. And Bozer, Bozer had been magnificent.

“Boze,” he says. When Bozer’s eyes meet his briefly in the mirror, Jack continues. “You were truly an exceptional agent back there,” he says. “You were dependable and quick on your feet, and I was really impressed.”

A shy smile flashes across Bozer’s face. “Thanks, man,” he says. “That means a lot coming from you!”

“It’s just the truth, brother,” he answers, and then they are back at the Phoenix. They all walk Riley down to medical, even Matty, and Riley goes without complaining. Jack shoots a worried look at Mac, and without prompting, Mac explains. “Nausea and weakness, right? Maybe a headache?” he asks. She nods. “Medical’ll have you feeling like yourself in no time,” he assures as Matty signs her in. Jack goes with her, waiting outside as she changes into a hospital gown, and coming back into the room to help her climb into the bed. He sits beside her to wait for the doctor and finds himself smiling as she starts nodding off right away. He holds her hand as the nurses come in and start hooking her up to an IV and assorted wires and draw blood, and he is there when the doctor comes in with the lab results. “A couple hours with an IV and some anti-nausea meds and you can go home,” she says. “You’ll still feel a bit woozy for the next couple days, but you shouldn’t need any additional help metabolizing the cyanide out of your system. The antidote Macgyver gerry-rigged worked perfectly.”

He breathes a relieved sigh. “You hear that, baby girl?” He slips unconsciously into the old endearment, but Riley is too nearly asleep to call him out on it. He smiles again, watching and etching the sight into his memory. “You get some rest now,” he says, tucking her hand underneath the blanket. “I’m going to get the boys to come stay with you while I go wrap things up with Matty.”

A barely-there hum is all the acknowledgment he gets. He looks back at her one last time before exiting her room and heading back to the waiting room, where Mac and Bozer are sitting slumped into each other on the couch. “Couple hours on an IV and meds and she’ll be good to go,” he tells them, and the lines on their faces finally smooth out. “I gotta tell ya, brother,” he says, clapping Mac on the shoulder. He means to make a joke, but suddenly the lump jumps back into his throat. He can’t joke about it – not about this. “I’m so glad you were there.”

Judging from the expression on Mac’s face, he knows exactly what had happened to make his voice quiver. “Yeah, well,” Mac says, mock-grumpily. “I’m not exactly going to let some third-rate bad guy old lady take out _Riley_ —“ and Jack hears _my sister_ clear as day, “am I?”

Somehow, Jack feels a chuckle bubble up. “Damn straight you aren’t,” he manages. “You guys go on back and sit with her till she’s cleared, ok? I need to go wrap things up with Matty.”

Mac’s eyes cloud. He knows that Jack doesn’t mean to wrap up the case – he means to wrap things up at the Phoenix. Jack doesn’t wait to talk about it, but heads for the door. Bozer eyes Mac, waiting for his cue. “Go for it, Boze,” he tells him. “I’m right behind you.” 

“Sure, Mac.” He already knows that Mac is going to talk to Jack. “Tell Jack dinner’s on me.”

Mac smiles. “Thanks, Boze,” he says, and sprints for the door. “Jack, wait!”

He catches up to him in the corridor. “Where are you really going?” he asks.

“I am actually going to Matty’s office,” he says. “Dealing with the last of the paperwork finalizing my transfer, making sure everything’s in order for my replacement. Then I’m heading to my place to pick up a few things and lock things up before tomorrow. I’m wheels up at 9:30am for DC, but you didn’t hear that from me.” 

Mac is quiet for a minute. “Will I see you before then?”

“Yeah of course, man. I’ll come in at 9 with you all and tell everyone then.”

Mac is quiet again. “Do you really – want to spend the night alone at your place?” he asks finally.

Jack’s gaze cuts to him, and he waits.

“It’s just – it’d be nice, you know. To have everyone under our roof one last time,” Mac continues. “Riley might not want to, but Bozer and I are gonna put it as she should have someone with her anyway, and this way we can make pancakes or something in the morning.”

Jack finds himself tearing up again. “Yeah,” he says. “That sounds nice. There are a few things I need to grab from my place, but I’ll come to yours after.

When Mac has disappeared down the hallway, Jack finds a bench and sits for a long moment, clasping his hands together and bending down over his knees. 

A few tears fall. Just a few, interspersed with long, deep breaths, just until he feels his spine straighten up again and his composure return to him. Blowing out one more long, deep breath, he stands, and continues walking. Each door between him and Matty seemed symbolic: one more barrier between him and home; one more layer of protection over his heart. 

Riley ends up getting discharged around 10, and the three of them are finishing up their takeout dinner when Jack drives up. He leaves his kit in the car and joins them on the deck, accepting a box that turned out to have his favorite Tex-Mex food in it. He blinks in surprise, and guesses he must have gotten lost in thought a bit because he looks up only to catch Riley’s teasing smile. “With _that_ look on your face, people’ll think you’ve never had a meal in your life, never mind that you basically cleaned out the buffet at the wedding!”

He chuckles, pushing himself to joke as usual. “Riles, you don’t _understand_ , the _bond_ between a man and his food is truly something special, you can’t _joke_ about it, this is _serious_!”

She giggles and gets up to sit next to him around the fire. “One of these days,” she says, “I’m going to enter you in an eating contest.”

“Actually,” Mac breaks in. “We kinda already had to do that, once, when we were in a tight spot in Germany—”

And just like that, it becomes any other night after a successful mission and near-death experiences: full of food, fun, laughter, and family. He can tell they won’t be up too much longer – he’s catching Bozer zoning out staring in to the flames, and Riley’s chewing is getting slower – then they’ll go to bed and he – well. He’s not sure how much sleeping he’ll be doing tonight, but by the looks of the stack of pillows and blankets placed unobtrusively in a corner of the deck, Mac plans on spending it with him.

So once they’re done with the food and dozing by the fire, he gently removes their trash. He wakes Bozer and the two of them walk Riley to the guest bedroom. Bozer smiles his goodnight and Riley tilts her face up to Jack to accept a goodnight kiss. When he gets back to the deck, Mac is unfolding blankets onto the deck chairs. “Figured we could just camp out here for the night,” he offers to Jack. They’d done it before – it was comfortable enough, and the LA nights were perfect. 

“Yeah,” Jack nods, the joking again having sunk away. “I’d like that,” he continues. It was nice – the clear night, the dying embers of the fire, the city he wouldn’t be seeing again for probably a long time. 

The night isn’t so bad. He sleeps a couple hours, and when sleep flees, he writes letters to each of them. Mac, always a restless sleeper, spends a lot of it awake too, but he lays there quietly for the most part, and Jack finds his silent companionship the perfect complement to the night and the time spent in his own head, preparing himself for the time to come. 

It was a good way to spend his last night: with his family, all under one roof, safe, and free.

Soon, the sun is beginning to rise. He cards a fond hand through Mac’s hair and Mac smiles sleepily at him in the pre-dawn glow. “Mac,” he whispers. “Mac, I’m gonna go. See you at the Phoenix at 9.”

Mac’s face falls. “Okay, Jack. We’ll be there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think: do you want to read the letters that Jack wrote to everyone? In that case, the next chapter will continue to pile on the angst and feels. Or, we can actually move into the plot (which will still be sufficiently angsty-feely). Let me know in the comments!


	3. Chapter 3

By the time he walks out the front door of the Phoenix, Jack’s face is composed and stony, only the slightest red still staining his eyes.

He knows he is leaving three devastated young people behind him. His kids, and Matty – Matty who he is beginning to think of as a solid rock and a safe place to land. 

_You wouldn’t really be yourself if you didn’t_ echoes in his mind, and he holds on to that as he climbs into the SUV waiting to take him to the base. So much grace and absolution his family gives him. _You and me, pizza and skee ball, when you get back, ok?_ It had floored her, and she was still kind. His girl.

They’d be all right. Mac had promised, and Matty was there. It was a good goodbye, he thinks.

He locks his memories into a tight little box and hides it deep inside him. Safe, there, to pull out later and revisit.

Jack takes a deep breath and turns his eyes to the road. 

<><><><><><><><><><><>

Behind Jack, an aching quiet fills the room. Matty’s heart breaks even more as she takes in the shock and sadness on her agents’ faces. They look so young, and Matty feels compassion overtake the grief. 

“You know nothing will keep him away from you guys, right?” she says.

Riley turns tearstained eyes to her. “Except a bullet,” she chokes out. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Mac wrap his arms around his chest.

“Guys!” Bozer’s voice is shaky but determined. “Jack served in the army with Mac. He was Delta Special Ops, which as far as I can tell is who you call when Batman can’t do the job, and then he came back and did super special spy stuff with the CIA, and then after all that he did his thing with Mac here. He hunted Kovac for twelve years. If none of that killed him, you think he’s gonna go down that easy?”

Matty feels a sprig of pride blossom, and she smiles across the room at the young man. “Bozer is right. Don’t go chasing after the worst possible outcome just yet, guys, because Jack can take care of himself and because he has the best possible reason to come back. You guys are here. And I’m going to keep my eye on him, and if we can do anything for him from here, you’ll be the first to know.

Mac dashes the tears out of his eyes and sniffs. “You mean that?” he asks.

“I promise,” Matty says solemnly. “Now, I know you need some time to take in Jack’s absence, but I want you to fill in your reports from the Olvera case and then get your butts out of here the rest of the day, ok? Get some food and relax. I’ll call you in when we have a case,” she says as she hands them the stack of reports. They take them without the usual groans and sit wordlessly down in her office and get started.

They don’t get very far. Matty has pity on them when she sees Riley staring out blankly in front of her, and Mac’s knee bouncing restlessly. When Bozer starts gnawing on a fingernail, she stands up. “Go on, get out of here,” she says. “You’re dismissed for the day; you can finish them later. Go and unwind,” she tells them. She’ll check on them later.

It’s lunchtime as they trail out of the Phoenix, but none of them are feeling particularly hungry. “Riles,” Mac says suddenly. “You should come over,” he says. “To our place.” 

Bozer nods his agreement. “Dunno about you guys, but I don’t wanna be without company right now.”

Riley nods, and Mac is grateful too that he doesn’t have to be alone today. 

Since it’s the middle of the day, traffic is nonexistent and it isn’t long before they are following Mac up to his apartment. They filter in, Bozer detouring to the kitchen to grab some vitamin waters for all of them, and end up all parked on the couch in the living room. Riley kicks off her shoes and curls up next to Mac, who is slumped down in the middle, Bozer twisting open the bottles and handing them to each of them. 

The liquids help, and soon the tension begins melting out of them and they are relaxing into one another. After a while, Bozer reaches for the remote and turns the TV on to Flip or Flop. When Mac is finally boneless and comfortable, sandwiched between Riley and Bozer, he begins cracking jokes with Bozer about the inaccuracies and failures of the show. Riley, alternating between watching the show and her two best friends in the world, feels something in her chest slither loose for the first time since Jack left that morning and it lets her take a deep breath, the last of the tension running out of her.   
She lays her head down on Mac’s shoulder and allows herself to doze. Things wouldn’t be right until Jack was back, but, well, they’d make it out till then.

They don’t find the letters until later, when Bozer goes into the garage to see what he can put together for dinner. They’re taped to the fridge door, envelopes with their names written on them in Jack’s typical scrawl, one for Mac, one for Bozer, one for Riley, and one for Matty too.

He feels his throat clog up again. Dinner forgotten, he carefully peels the tape off the one addressed to him, slides a finger underneath the flap, and pulls out a piece of notebook paper, carefully folded.

_Bozer, my man,_

_If I’m right, you’ll be the one to find these, tonight maybe. When you come to the garage to get the stuff for dinner. If you are, could I ask you to give these letters to everyone when the time is right? It might be now, I don’t know. You be the judge of that. Maybe give Matty hers though, please._

_Bozer, I’m so glad you’re a part of this team – glad and a little jealous, maybe; you were there for Mac before me, and now you’ll be there for him after, when I promised never to leave him. As you are a brother to him, Bozer, I want you to know that I never meant to leave. I never wanted to, and I hate that I have to. But the thing is, knowing Kovac is alive? Anything else he might do is on me. I have to take him down._

_Boze, I know you aren’t the most experienced member on the team, but you have an advantage over Mac and Riley. You know what a father’s love is like, and it is reflected in how you love those around you. I gotta say, man, you pour out love and affection more easily than anyone else I’ve ever met and our boy Mac and our girl Riley here? They need it. They thrive on it. They will help you get better at being an agent, but they’re gonna need that sunshine of yours desperately. They’re gonna need everything else you have to offer too, but I’m more interested in making sure that you all stick together as a family. Boze, it’s a big favor to ask, but I know you’ll do it: look after them for me, will you? You’re the man of the house, now._

_All my love,  
Jack _

Bozer sniffs and dashes tears away from his eyes. Jack had pinpointed Bozer’s biggest insecurity and claimed it was his strength. He already knows that he is too eager, too open, too free with his emotions, and he has always been afraid that he could be manipulated through them. But Jack – the biggest, toughest, and softest-hearted among them – didn’t see it as a weakness, and because of it was in fact trusting Bozer to care for Mac and Riley, the people he loves most in the world. 

_I promise, Jack,_ he thinks, dragging a hand down his face and straightening up. 

Just then the doorbell rings. Bozer gets it, and it is Matty, bags of takeout in hand. She holds them up to him. “Didn’t think you’d be up for cooking, so I brought dinner,” she says.

“Thanks, Matty,” Bozer answers. Matty takes in the subdued tone, downcast face – and the stack of envelopes in Bozer’s hand. “Boze?” her voice is soft. “Is something wrong?”

He shakes his head as he moves aside for her to come in. “No, I just…Well, here. Jack left these for us and I just found them.” He hands her her letter from Jack and takes the bags from her.

“Letters?” she asks. “Jack can be so sentimental,” she says, but all the same she’s moved. “Umm – I think I’ll go read it in the car.”

Bozer’s gaze is kind and understanding. “Sure, Matty. Take your time. I’ll take these outside. I might wait to give Riley and Mac theirs.”

She nods her thanks and closes the door behind her. Instead of going back to the car, she sits on the steps up to the front door and uses her keys to slit open the envelope.

_Matty,_

_You are truly one in a million, Matilda Webber, and nothing I ever say or do will be enough to express just how thankful I am to you and for you. You’ve been a solid place and an inexpressible comfort for me, and knowing that you have my back and are keeping an eye out for me and the team eases my heart no end. If I manage to see this thing through, can I take you out for drinks? Just to get started on repaying the lifelong debt I happily owe you._

_All my respect and affection,  
Jack _

She reads the letter twice before drawing a shaky breath. “Just come back, Jack,” she whispers under her breath. “That’ll be enough.”

She takes a beat, pulls herself together, and heads back into the house. She finds Bozer standing in the kitchen, the takeout still in the bags. He is lost in thought, looking out through the glass door into the deck at Riley and Mac, working together companionably to build a fire in the firepit. 

“Boze?” she asks again.

He blinks. “Hey Matty.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” he says, tearing his eyes away from the pair outside. “It’s just – it took us a while today to level out from Jack’s leaving. If I give them their letters now, I think it’ll upset the mojo. But at the same time, I don’t feel right holding on to these for long. I also think – they’ll probably wanna read them in private, maybe keep them to themselves.”

Matty purses her lips, thinking.

“What if you leave it, say, in their beds? Is Riley staying tonight? That way they’ll find it when they are alone and have some time to themselves.”

Bozer’s face brightens. “Yeah,” he says. “That would work. I’ll put Riley’s in the guest bedroom, and if she leaves I’ll give it to her.”

Matty smiles. “I think that’s a good idea.”

He smiles back and hands her the bags again. “Could you take it out to them while I go do that?”

Nodding and smiling, she takes the bags and goes out onto the deck.

Riley notices her first. “Matty!” she says smiling, scooting over so she can sit between her and Mac. 

“Hope you guys are hungry,” Matty says, handing the bags to Mac.

“Thanks, Matty! You didn’t have to do that!” Mac responds, pulling out takeout containers of Chinese. 

“That looks awesome,” Riley says as she helps open up the boxes. 

“I thought maybe Bozer wouldn’t feel like cooking tonight. Did you guys end up doing anything fun today?” she asks, happy to see that they all looked relaxed and at ease. 

So they tell her about their day, sort of, omitting specifics about the occasional down faces and tears. Matty sees the lingering sadness and insecurity on their faces and allows them to keep their feelings to themselves. She does, however, allow herself one statement as they chow down into their food – _young people,_ she thinks to herself. _Enjoy that appetite while you can._

“Well,” she says aloud. “I’m glad that you made the most of a slow day, but don’t expect that kind of thing often. Jack or no Jack, we’ve still got plenty of work to do. I want you in at 9am tomorrow to meet Desi, your new security, picked out by Jack himself. I have lots of exercises and drills for you to do so you can start figuring out how to be a cohesive team unit.”

She hides a chuckle at the chorus of groans that emerges. But, she thinks, the message was received: there’s work to do, and with Jack or no she intended to use her best agents to get it done. Hopefully, that will nip any insecurities in the bud.

Then Riley is asking her about Desi and the drills, and before they know it, it’s getting late. Matty downs the last of her beer and stands up. “Okay, guys, I’m gonna say goodnight and head home. Sleep well and I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t be late!” 

They send her off with hugs and goodnights, and Riley starts piling all the trash into the bags. “Me too, guys. I better go home.”

“You sure you don’t want to stay another night?” Mac asks.

“Yeah – I should shower and sleep in my own bed before heading back to work tomorrow,” she says regretfully, getting to her feet and stretching. “Thanks a ton for everything, you two. I mean it. This would be a lot harder without you.”

Mac, suddenly shy, blushes but holds her gaze. Bozer doesn’t miss a beat. “You’re family, Ri,” he says, and Riley suddenly feels emotion collect in her throat. Bozer sees it in her face and adds, “That’s not gonna change because Jack’s gone.”

She swallows, and goes in to hug Bozer and then Mac.

“Actually, hold up a sec before you go, Riley. You too, Mac. I’ll be right back.” 

Bozer’s back before the quizzical looks have left from their faces, letters in hand, and gives them to the pair.

“I found these taped to the fridge when I went to start dinner,” he says. “Letters from Jack. One for me and Matty, too. He said to give them to you at the right time – I thought maybe you’d want to read them alone tonight, so I had put them in your beds (well, Mac’s bed and the guest room bed.)"

Judging by the stunned looks on their faces, they hadn’t really heard anything after “letters from Jack.” Boze feels suddenly wistful – aware all over again that there was an entire history with Jack that Bozer knew nothing about. Bozer didn’t have the same connection with Jack that the other two did; Mac and Riley had had years with him, as a father figure, and Bozer isn’t sure how to do what Jack asked in light of the maturity and experience the three of them had had together. But looking again at the speechless faces, Bozer is again moved by the compassion that marks him. So, he waits, watching his two friends.

Mac’s jaw works a bit as he stares at the envelope in his hand, and Bozer isn’t sure if he should help his friend sit down. Riley on the other hand is slack-jawed for a few moments. “Umm,” she says eventually, her voice a little breathy as she visibly works to collect herself. “Where’d you say you found these?”

“On the fridge,” Bozer responds. “In the garage.”

“Oh.” She swallows again. “Umm – I think I’m gonna go. Read it alone. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Riley,” Bozer says. 

“You know you can call or come back, right?” Mac adds, his voice a little hoarse.

Riley nods, turns, and all but flees out the door.

Bozer turns to his best friend. “Mac?” he queries.

“I—” Mac says, and pauses. “I – yeah?” His voice gives out in the middle.

Bozer meant to ask how Mac wants to read it, but veers away from it at the last moment. “We’re gonna be ok, Mac.”

Something in Mac’s face eases, and he really looks at Bozer. “Yeah,” he breathes out. “Yeah, we all will.”

Bozer nods solemnly. Just for the briefest moment, Mac rests a hand over Bozer’s wrist. “Goodnight, Boze.”

“Goodnight, Mac.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

_Riley, honey,_

_I truly am sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner. Truth is, I am not brave enough to look you in the eyes with you knowing that I’m leaving. Again, and no better than Elwood. I am so sorry.  
I know that I’m gonna break down saying goodbye to you in a couple hours, and not say half the things I want to, and that’s why I’m writing letters. God almighty, I’m sitting on Mac’s deck at 2:37 in the morning, already crying, as I’m writing this. It’s so dumb – Matty will tease me about it to the end of our days – but I wanted you all to have it in writing: a reminder you can revisit any time you need to remember that old Jack loves all of you more, frankly, than he loves his own skin. I’d happily give whatever it takes to keep you four free, happy, and fulfilled and that is a big part of the reason I have to go. _

_Hearing over coms about Mac finding you poisoned just dropped my heart into my throat. I’ve never been so paralyzed with fear before, and believe me I’m used to being in scary situations. Just the idea of living in a world without you in it – without your spark, without your soul, your integrity, smarts, kindness (you may be a badass but you’re also kind, oh honey, don’t ever let that change) – just about dropped me then and there. I couldn’t be prouder of both you and Mac for coming through that and finishing the mission.  
Depend on each other while I’m gone, Ri. You and Mac and Bozer. Desi will take a while to become part of the family, but the three of you can handle anything; you don’t need me for what you do. Promise me that you’ll look out for each others’ backs, and that you’ll keep on living full and good lives while I’m gone._

_In return, I promise to finish up that son of a bitch Kovac and come back to you as fast as I possibly can._

_This mission, Ri…I’m not looking forward to it. Keep your phone on, ok? I’ll call you when I can. If I can. I love you, sweetheart._

_Jack_

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

_Dear Mac,_

_I’m pretty sure you’re actually asleep right now—you’re making a little snuffling noise on the exhale and it’s the cutest thing._

_I’m sorry – I know this night hasn’t been easy for you, but your steady presence and companionship on this night has been such a comfort to me, brother._

_How do I tell you, Mac, just how much you mean to me? How just having you around and being around you puts a bounce in my step and a smile on my face? Matty can tell you – before you came along and became my job, it had been a long time since I was able to joke and laugh like I do with you and the others._

_I’m honestly kind of scared, Mac. I need to go back to being that guy, and I don’t mind telling you I hope to God you never have to meet that nasty, calculating, cruel son of a bitch; I’d be so ashamed to wear him in front of you. Something about you just drives me straight back into my bones, son. Forces me – makes it easy for me – to be my best self for you most especially. To have a little flame of hope about the world, just because you three exist in it, and Matty, and you all work so hard to make it a better place. Please believe me when I say that there’s no place I’d rather be than with you guys, but I have to go._

_I have to. I can’t let him hurt anybody else, and I was the one who let him get away last time. It’s on me to fix. Mac, I’m so sorry. I know I promised never to leave you, but I swear on my father’s grave that I will make every single damn effort I can to get back to you guys as fast as possible._

_Take care of yourself, Mac. I know you’ll take care of the others first, but promise me you’ll look after yourself too. Do what you love. Save lives. Just keep doing your thing, and before you know it, I’ll be back to keep my eyes on you._

_I love you so much, son._

_Jack_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be a while before the next update, mostly because I want to write a couple chapters just to make sure there aren't any egregious holes in my plot. That said, next chapter we finally move into the hunt for Kovac.


	4. Chapter 4

While en route to HQ in DC, Col. Sean Jackson debriefs Jack via secured videolink. They weren’t acquainted before, so Jack takes a moment to look at the man over. Jackson, he realizes as he takes in the man’s sour features and hunched posture, is displeased.

“Dalton.” Jackson acknowledges Jack’s salute with a nod. “Thought you and my predecessor took care of this bastard ten years ago.”

Jack is still standing at attention. “We thought so too, sir.”

“Well, I am counting on you to get the job done this time. No loose ends. Are you up to the task?”

Jack bristles, but keeps his cool. “Yes, sir.”

Jackson looks at Jack over the tops of his glasses, assessing. “You come highly recommended by a number of top agencies and indviduals, and your resume is impressive enough. I expect to see evidence of that throughout this operation.”

Jack suppresses an urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, sir.”

Jackson apparently decides he is satisfied, and turns his eyes to the folder in front of him. “You should have already received a copy of this intel,” he tells him. “The names and dossiers of your team members and all the intel we’ve got on Kovac’s operations, which is next to nothing. You’ll meet with the team in DC, pool intel and resources, and draft up a plan which you’ll share with me at a debrief at 1600 hours tomorrow. Next morning you’re all out on a plane at 0600 hours to wherever you mean to begin.

You will have access to whatever funds and resources you need, though expense reports will be required for all expenditures. Regular operations rules apply, which I’m sure you don’t need me to go over. Remember that you need to operate under the radar as much as possible, but at all costs, take Kovac the fuck out. Also remember to restrain your cowboy tendencies here; utilize your team, but note that these people won’t roll over easily and have done some dirty work for their countries. This kind of international operation doesn’t come around often, and you’ve got some of the very best that the world has to offer. Play your cards right, and you’ll have strengthened international ties and netted yourself some very lucrative contacts for the future. Handle them poorly, and this entire op will go up in flames.

So from China, you’ve got a married couple, Liu Chenlong and Liu Siyang. Our intel says they’ve been rising stars in Chinese intelligence and covert ops for the past decade; it’s a regular Mr. and Mrs. Smith story. From Saudi Arabia, Abbas Ekram and Latif Nasrullah; rumor has it that these guys were involved in the Khashoggi case, but we aren’t sure how. And finally from the UK, you’ve got James Bond and Captain America’s girlfriend – real names Theo White and Leela Morgan. From here it’s you and your old Navy SEAL pal Lt. Commander Steven McGarrett. Any questions?”

“No, sir.” Jack says, bemused by the commentary Jackson had offered on his new teammates. 

“Then good luck. I will see you all at 1600 sharp tomorrow; you’ll be informed of the location when you arrive on base.”

“Thank you, sir.” Jack says. Jackson cuts the feed and is gone.

Jack settles back into his seat and closes his eyes. _Here we go._

The conversation is precursor to a brutal year.

They go to Croatia first. It takes a month for the team to finally cohere, and then another six months of settling in, establishing rapport among the locals, and finally beginning to decipher what happened to Kovac after the shooting.

Leela Morgan is the first to make any real headway. She befriends a Croatian woman, who is close friends with the wife of one of the men who had been killed in the initial confrontation with Kovac. Through her, Leela finds out that another man had disappeared with Kovac; he wasn’t among the dead, but he had never come back to Croatia even as the others had slunk back to their families or had been confirmed dead. 

Finding Luka Horvat would probably be easier than finding Kovac, they reason, and quite likely where one was, there would be the other. So all the team members get their intelligence agencies at home to scour around for Luka Horvat using all possible means.

Riley finds Horvat in a tidy little bungalow with two lady friends in Bulgaria, and Jack has to suppress a hysterical giggle at the disgust on her face as she debriefs him – Mac and Bozer crashing the debrief as well just to share in the disgust and to say hi. He debriefs privately with Matty after.

So six of them fly out to Bulgaria, leaving Leela and Theo there to continue recon while they question Horvat. 

Though he’d gotten much fatter and grayer, Jack recognizes Horvat with a start. Just before he’d pulled the trigger, Jack had gotten a look through his rifle scope at another man in the room with Kovac. It had been Horvat – who, come to think of it, had been a lot thinner back then. 

Horvat gives up everything after just one threatening look from Steve and Abbas, who’d gone in to question him together. Horvat, it turned out, had been the getaway driver. He had gotten Kovac out of the building and had driven him across the border to Bosnia. From there, they had gotten a private helicopter to take Kovac to a nice private hospital in Bulgaria. Friend Luka had apparently deposited his boss there, left the hospital, looked around and decided he liked what he saw and that he would stay.

“What about your wife and kids?” asked a very amused Steve.

Horvat only stares at him, and starts muttering under his breath. It takes Jack a beat to decipher it, but when he does he startles at the laugh that bursts out of him. “That woman wasn’t a wife, that was a dragon! Nag nag nag every day like we are married for centuries instead of six year! Wanting to live like President of United States! No, no, no, of course I don’t go back to that.”

Jack bites back a smirk he shares with Steve. Oh, he can’t wait to tell this story to the kids. He can hear Bozer’s wheeze of laughter already. So he pushes up their regular scheduled debriefing and feels his heart soften and unfurl at the site of his family laughing. He gets Steve to play the part of Horvat and Steve plays the part to perfection, down to Horvat’s oily personality and terrible posture, and returns the favor when Steve calls his team in Hawaii in a rare moment of downtime.

The rest of the team joins them in Croatia and they start all over again. Things move faster this time around – the private hospital was nice, and even though Kovac had made sure to destroy the records, enough of the well-trained, discreet staff remembered his face. One of the doctors had made house visits to Kovac, and was able to give them an address. From there, they go to Indonesia and have something of a break: they don’t get Kovac, but they dismantle a drug-smuggling ring that was a major source of income for him and nab a middle-level lieutenant that gives them intel to Kovac’s location in Beirut, Lebanon. But the win is quickly forgotten in light of what they find in Lebanon: bombed out Syrian refugee camps raided for human trafficking victims. They come the day after the attack, and discover that one of the wounded is actually one of Kovac’s men. He gives up another location: Arkhangelsk, in the northern tip of Russia. Jack suppresses a groan. A Texan, a Hawaiian, and two Saudi Arabians walk into fucking Antarctica. At least the Chinese team was from the northern part of China; they’d be better able to handle the cold.

 _It’s the Arctic, Jack,_ he hears Mac’s voice correcting him in his head. _Antarctica’s the South Pole._

 _Yeah well, we've had shitty missions down there, too,_ he tells Mac's voice in his head.

But as they begin packing up to head to Russia, Jack realizes that a sense of anticipation is beginning to develop among the team. After nearly two years of incremental progress, they finally have something concrete. And cautiously – tentatively – Jack allows himself, maybe, to let the tiniest flame of hope take root in himself, too. Maybe – maybe they are getting somewhere. Maybe.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

They were bored.

It was the slowest month at the Phoenix that even Mac could recall, and they were so bored.

Matty had gone out of her mind trying to occupy them with training and leading drills for junior agents, but that had quickly lost its power. Mac had taken apart and “fixed” every bit of electrical gadgetry in the place (Matty’s computer now spoke to her in a voice that was ridiculously similar to Jack’s, and it _talked back to her_ with Jack’s dumb idioms. Matty absolutely refused to give the team the pleasure of knowing they had gotten to her with their prank.) Bozer had tinkered with Sparky to the point where the robot argued with everyone who spoke to him about the dumbest things, and Riley just played 2048 cupcakes obsessively.

So when Matty calls them in before 6am for an urgent mission, they can’t help but feel relieved despite the early hour. Desi, they all notice, isn’t there.

“Here’s the deal, guys,” she tells them. “Over the past couple of months, we’ve been tracking huge amounts of dirty money coming into the US and disappearing into black market guns. We’ve been picking up the buyers, but they have had nothing actionable to tell us about where the money came from, so we kept stringing the sellers along until finally, early this morning, the overnight team got a lead on a location – the money is originating from Rosselkhozbank in Arkhangelsk, Russia, from an account under the name Jean-Michel Rousse. The transactions occur every two weeks, and according to intel the next transaction is in three days, which gives you just enough time to get to Arkhangelsk and scope things out. It’s safe to assume Jean-Michel Rousse is an alias, but it’s all the information we’ve got on him. I want you all to go to Russia, infiltrate the bank, and get any information you can on Rousse and his location, and whether or not he’s the mastermind or if someone is pulling his strings. Based on the regularity of the transactions, we think they are made either automatically or online, so this should just be a relatively simple information-gathering mission. Nevertheless, as always, be on alert. Wheels up in 30 minutes. Any questions?”

“Who’s our security for this one?” Mac asks.

“No security; it’s just a simple fact-finding mission. You are not to engage these people; if you find him, that info needs to go to CIA through me. Anyway, I have Desi on another mission at the moment.” 

In thirty minutes, they are settled into the jet and Mac is researching Arkhangelsk. He isn’t super thrilled. “It’s way up north in Russia, guys,” he says. That explains the extra luggage Mac saw getting loaded into the baggage storage area. “That explains the snow gear,” he says. 

“Aw man, snow? I hate snow,” grumbles Bozer.

“Me too,” Mac agrees. “And missions in snowy places always seem to go wrong. We had some truly shitty stuff happen in Antarctica and I’m not thrilled about going again.”

Riley’s eyes narrow. “We’re going to Antarctica?”

Mac shakes his head. “No, sorry, I just meant going back to a snowy place. We’re technically going to the Arctic; Antarctica is down South.”

At Riley’s nod, he turns back to the computer. “Oh, hey!” he says later. “We can catch the Northern Lights up there! They’re absolutely incredible.”

The way Mac’s tone softens and trails off at the end makes Bozer look up in suspicion this time. “Mac?”

“Hm?”

“What are you thinking about?”

Mac looks away, embarrassed. “Sorry,” he said. “I was just remembering the first time I saw the Northern lights.”

“Nuh-uh,” Riley retorts. “Don’t stop there! Why do I feel like Jack was with you?”

He turns amused eyes at her. “Because he was,” Mac answers. “It was our first year with DXS, and we got sent up for a mission in Sweden. Jack had seen the lights before, but for me – they stole my breath away; I almost botched the mission because I was so distracted by how beautiful they were. But then, after we were done, Jack somehow talked Thornton into letting us stay another three days. We had all this hard core snow gear, so Jack bought a ton of beer and food and we camped out under the Northern lights. I watched them for _hours_ each night, and Jack watched them with me – at least until he fell asleep and I dragged us both back into our – seriously luxuriant – tent for the rest of the night. We even went ice fishing!”

“Did you catch anything, Mac?” Bozer asks, grinning.

“An old boot!” Mac answers, setting everyone to laughing. “We were so proud of that boot!”

Riley grins. “Sounds like a nice memory, Mac.”

He nods, his face gone soft and fond. “One of the best memories of my life,” he says.

“Do you think we could do that?” Bozer asks. “Stay out a couple days and camp outside? I’d deal with the cold if it means getting to do something that means so much to you with you!”

Mac feels his heart swell. “That’d be amazing! I dunno if Matty packed us that kind of gear, but we’ve gotta be able to take some vacation time. I’ll ask Matty, once the op is done.”

“Awesome!” Riley and Bozer chorus. “Maybe we could get some skiing in too,” Riley suggests. “What else is there to do in Arkhangelsk?”

“Not a whole lot,” Mac says, turning back to his computer. “Mostly it’s tourism based around the lights. Oh – there’s a—“ his eyes flash to them and Bozer hides a grin at how he can see Mac resetting. “A—science thing. That’d be cool to see. A TV tower from 1964. I can go see that. Oh, and they’re super into folklore and fairy tales! We should see if we could catch a show!”

Riley chuckles. “Just remember, we’re going there for a mission first!”

Mac laughs. “You’re right – work first, play later.”

So they all turn back to the schematics and details. They sleep, play games, and watch a movie, and a little after 10pm they arrive at the little airport. 

Matty had rented a car for them. Using Mac’s passabable Russian, they were able to get the car and make it to the safehouse Matty had arranged for them. It’s on the top floor of a three-story tenement.

“Not exactly five stars,” Bozer comments as he walks in. 

“It’s enough,” Riley answers, trooping in behind him and taking it in. It’s a clean, well-lit two-bedroom apartment. She slings her gear down onto the table and walks into the first bedroom. Mac checks out the second one.

“There are two beds in this one,” Mac says.

“One here,” Riley calls out. “I’m claiming it!”

They are up early the next morning, thanks to jetlag. They scavenge some breakfast from a local place (Bozer can’t stop raving about the blini) and visit the bank one day before the transaction goes down to scope out security and make their plan to infiltrate.

“At least six points of entry,” says Bozer. “Two doors and three windows, each with separate security cameras aimed at them. I can see one additional door behind the tellers, but I don’t have an unobstructed view so I don’t know what else is there,” Bozer whispers, stopping to look at some signs by the door.

“The cameras are old school; not a problem.” For all intents and purposes, Riley looks like a bored woman waiting in line for her spouse as she lounges in a chair idling on her phone, but they can hear the clack of her nails against the screen as she hacks in. “Oh, come on!” she exclaims a moment later. “Their computers are air-gapped!”

“Ri?” Mac questions as she falls silent. He is in line, planning to change American money into Russian.

There’s a brief pause.

“Well,” she hesitates. “It’s just, it’s a little weird to have such dinky security cameras and then such high-quality security measures for the network…”

“What are you thinking, Riles?” Mac presses.

“It’s probably nothing,” she admits. “It just – it’s weird. It’s also not like this is a major metropolitan area with high crime rates. It seems excessive. It could be that someone else paid for the security upgrades.”

“Someone like Rousse?” Bozer asks.

“Yeah, someone like Rousse,” Riley agrees.

‘Ok. We’ll just stay on alert, then,” Bozer says.

“We need to get into the back to find the servers,” Riley says. “I can’t see the server rooms from here.”

“I could ask about renting a safety deposit box? And then you could slip away while we are seeing the box?” Mac says. 

“Yeah, rent a safety deposit box. Then bringing our valuables here can be our reason for coming back tomorrow,” Riley suggests. “I just need enough time to plug in this USB here – it’ll let me sift through the network back at the apartment and I should be able to find what we’re looking for pretty easily. Hopefully.”

“How much time do you need, Ri?” Bozer asks.

“Whatever time you can give me,” she says.

“I’m up,” Mac whispers into his com as he reaches the teller. “Good morning,” Mac says in Russian. “Can you please help me change my money to rubles, and show me your safety deposit boxes? We are thinking of renting one.”

The teller, a young man with thick eyebrows, nods and says in thickly-accented English, “Of course. How much to change?”

“Four hundred USD.”

The teller nods, exchanges the money and fills in the paperwork, and asks them to follow him into the back. There, he takes them inside the safe and opens up an empty one for them. “Please take as long as you need. I will be right outside.”

It’s actually effortless, all things considered. In a few minutes, Riley asks to be shown the bathroom, which ever so conveniently is right next to the server room. Mac engineers a fake argument over the phone with Bozer, who is still waiting in the bank, and in the disruption Riley breaks into the server room, sticks in the USB and establishes a link between her and the network, and slips back into the safety deposit room just as the teller is trying to calm Mac down. As soon as Mac sees her, he allows himself to be cajoled into better humor. With Riley mock-scolding him for causing such a fuss, Mac smooths things over with the teller by apologizing and spinning some cover story about Bozer and Mac staking everything on building a business together. When they come out, Bozer is doing the same – only with his typical good humor he’s actually got the security guard laughing. 

It makes Riley and Mac laugh too.

So they walk out of the bank on good terms. They miss the glint from a rifle scope in the building across the street from them.

Across the street, Jack jerks as he sights the trio exiting the bank through his rifle scope. “Chenlong, take over,” he says, shoving the rifle into his partner’s hands and launching himself down the stairs. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Phoenix, what are you guys doing here?” he whispers breathlessly as he takes the stairs four at a time.

“Not bad, guys!” Mac says as they get into the car.

“Does that mean we are done?” Bozer asks, strapping himself in.

“Depends on what I find,” Riley says, her laptop already up and running. “I got full access into the system, and I just need to—oh. Damn. Guys, Matty’s intel was wrong – it’s not an automated transaction. Rousse comes and does it in person!”

“Wait, _what_?” Bozer squeaks. “So Rousse’ll be here tomorrow to deposit the money and transfer it to the US?”

Riley nods, her eyes still focused on the computer. 

“We have to call Matty,” Mac says. He’s hit dial when he notices a familiar figure coming out of a building across the street. 

“About time you guys checked in. What’s the latest?” Matty’s voice comes through the speaker phone.

“Do you guys—is that—” It sounds like Mac and Bozer are speaking at the same time.

Matty can’t tell what’s going on. “Did you butt-dial me?” she asks, eyebrow shooting up. “It’s after 4 in the mo—”

There’s something like a gasp that comes over the line. Then—

_“Jack?”_

The line goes dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a beautiful day here. Sun's out, it's in the high 60s, and for the first time in months I'm not wearing socks AND slippers. I'm a little giddy, so here's a chapter a little earlier than I meant to.
> 
> So far I'm halfway through writing the 7th chapter! I think we'll probably go 12-15 chapters total. Probably.


	5. Chapter 5

It’s only by virtue of ingrained training that Mac doesn’t launch himself out of the car at Jack.

“Wait!” he cries to the others. “We don’t know if he’s undercover; we can’t blow it. Don’t stare at him.” All Mac does is lower the window, then turn around in his seat as though he wants to talk to Bozer in the back.

Sure enough, Jack just ambles past them. It’s only because they know him well that they can read the strain and shock in his face, but he doesn’t stop until he’s towards the back of the car. From the rearview mirror, Mac can see him bend down to tie his shoelaces and unobtrusively tuck a note underneath the rear left fender, straighten up, and keep walking down the street.

“Ok,” Mac says. “He left something under the fender. We’re gonna drive off this street, then park and get it. Meanwhile, Boze, call Matty back, and Riley, keep digging into the bank.”

Bozer dials again.

“Bozer, what the hell is going on?” Matty sounds wide awake and alert now. “Did you say Jack is there?”

“Sorry, Matty! We infiltrated the bank successfully, but we found out Rousse’s transactions aren’t automatic – he actually comes in person to make the deposit and set up the transaction each time.”

Riley interrupts. “It’s because the system is on a delay, which is weird! It doesn’t log transactions as they occur; it logs them every ten minutes. That’s why the transactions show as so regular.”

“So Rousse will be there in person tomorrow? What about Jack?” Matty asks.

“We got in the car outside the bank, and all of a sudden Jack is walking up to the car. He tucked a note underneath the car, and we’re driving to the safehouse before retrieving it. We didn’t make contact with him; we were worried about blowing his cover,” Mac replies.

“Are your cases connected? Rousse and Kovac?” Matty presses.

“We’ve no idea, Matty, but I’m sending you old surveillance footage now. I can’t ID these guys – any one of them might be Rousse.”

“Ok. I’ll look at them. Make contact with Jack, and then call me back.”

“Copy that,” Mac says, and hangs up.

In LA, Matty leans back into her pillows, stunned. _Well, shit,_ she thinks, and throws her comforter back. _Guess my day is starting early._

In Russia, Mac is already driving off the street. They get just over a mile out when Mac pulls off to the side of the road, parks, and grabs the note from the fender. It gives them an address that Riley finds within seconds just a couple of miles away. 

“We don’t know what’s at the address, guys,” Mac cautions as they pull up. It’s in the touristy part of town, which helps them blend in. They can’t see much through the dark windows of what looks to be a tiny tenement sandwiched in between a Russian tea place full of grannies and a corner grocery “It could be Jack, or a lead, or something else entirely. Be on alert.”

They infiltrate quietly and smoothly, having learned through rigorous training with Desi how to do so. They clear the first floor and are just making their way up to the second when the first door on the left down the long hallway opens. A tall Middle-Eastern man motions them in. “Jack is coming,” he whispers. “Said to tell you, he is surprised Sparky has not begun the Robopocalypse yet. He did not tell me what that means.” 

The trio sag, relieved, as they troop into the room. They are surprised to find a large, well-lit base of operations with tech, bunks, and three other people with their attention focused on the newcomers.

“Please, wait,” said the man who had let them in, motioning to some chairs near the door. “Jack will come soon.”

Riley narrows her eyes at the other woman in the room. “Wait a minute,” she says. “I’ve seen your face before. Aren’t you Leela Morgan? British intelligence?”

“Yes!” Leela nods. “We worked together, in a manner of speaking. On that case, last year. You know the one.” There is something of a smirk hidden deep in the woman’s red-tinted lips. 

Riley doesn’t hold back. She throws her head back and laughs. “Yes, I know the one. You were amazing, and it’s an honor to meet you.” She goes up to Leela and shakes her hand.

“The pleasure’s all mine, Riley. Have you figured out yet who we are?”

Mac and Bozer are bemused at the exchange, but Bozer pitches in anyway. “You guys must be Jack’s taskforce,” he says. 

“Right,” Leela says. “And you must be Bozer, and you must be MacGyver.”

Mac blushes. “Jack talks about us, does he?” he asks.

“No, he’s too well-trained for that,” she says, and she does smirk this time. Bozer rolls his eyes. “We’re in a nest of spies, Riles. They’re gonna keep their secrets.”

Leela and the man sitting next to her chuckle. “Not everything is a secret,” the man says. “We’re all on the same team, that’s a good start. My name is Theo White, also British intelligence. That quiet pair over there is Abbas Ekram and Latif Nasrullah, from Saudi Arabia. Abbas was the one who let you in. You’ll meet the other two pairs later, Jack and Steve and Chenlong and Siyang, when they come back.”

“In the meantime,” says Latif, “would you like some tea?” He makes them mint tea, and has just handed them their mugs when Theo calls out, “Jack’s here.” 

Moments later, Jack is standing in the open doorway. Emotion catches him by surprise – a punch to the gut that brings tears to his eyes. From behind him, Steve ushers Jack into the room.

“What are you guys doing here?” Jack asks, granting them only brief hugs. He can tell they are confused by his distance, but he keeps a hand on Mac’s shoulder as he looks him in the eye. “Are you here for Kovac? Did Matty send you?”

“No – we were actually shocked to see you. We’re tracking down dirty money coming into the US from an account at the bank you saw us at. The money is going towards illegal weapons.”

“Do you have a name?” Steve asks. “I’m Steve, by the way. Former Navy SEAL, now from Hawaii.”

“We do,” Riley takes over. “He’ll be at the bank tomorrow to make another transaction – but we should probably call Matty first and check in with her about how to proceed.” 

“Come with me,” Jack says. “We have a secure chat room.”

So they follow Jack into a little room, but they are barely inside before Jack is turning to each of them and wrapping them in long, hard hugs.

There is a lot of throat-clearing before Jack speaks, his voice a little hoarse. “Dear God, when I saw you guys walking out of that bank! _Why are you here?_ Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Jack, we’re fine,” Riley says from where she is tucked into Jack’s side.

Mac nods, eyes still red. “We were shocked to see you too,” he says, and Jack gives in to the desire to lay his hand on Mac’s shoulder. Bozer next to him has his own hand on Jack’s shoulder – Jack’s love language is touch, he thinks idly, recalling mandatory psych seminars at the Phoenix, and he’s apparently taught all his kids well, he thinks. But still, the hairs on the back of his neck are standing up. He needs to get these three the fuck out of here, far, far away from anything remotely connected to Kovac.

“We _gotta_ get to the bottom of this,” he says, and brings up Matty on the big screen.

Her face eases when she sees them all together. “Took you long enough!” she scolds. “Jack, are you okay?”

Jack nods up at the screen. “All fine, Matty, just a hell of a lot of questions,” he says.

“Why are you in Arkhangelsk?” she asks. “Weren’t you in Croatia, I don’t know, yesterday?”

Mac raises an eyebrow at Riley. Apparently Matty had been keeping an eye on Jack.

“There wasn’t time to inform you – we got intel suggesting that Kovac, or his organization, uses this bank to send money regularly to the US—”

“And the next transaction is tomorrow,” Matty finishes. “Well, shit,” she says, throwing up her hands. “You’re on the same lead. I sent the team to Arkhangelsk because that bank is sending dirty money to the US, and it’s going into black market weapons.”

“Well, shit,” Jack echoes. 

“I don’t understand,” Riley asks, her eyebrows furrowed. “Isn’t this a good thing? We can work together, maybe help you guys out a bit?”

“Jurisdiction’s gotta be a bitch,” Bozer guesses, and Matty nods.

“No, Matty, you guys can’t stay,” Jack insists, and three heads whip around to stare at him. “I’m sorry, guys, but you cannot stay. I won’t let you.”

“Excuse me?” Matty rebuts. “That’s not your call to make, Dalton! They answer to me, not to you!”

“My taskforce, Matty!”

“Jack, why wouldn’t you want us around?” Mac asks, and Jack can tell he’s a little hurt. Bozer and Riley have the same expression on their faces.

“Yeah, man – you know we can help you,” Bozer adds. Riley is frowning.

“I can’t watch you three and deal with Kovac! And it’s far too risky – just think about it, he’s already got eight people on him, you really want to add another three? Even if it’s you three, one whiff of a tail and this whole thing could explode in our faces.”

It was the wrong answer, Jack knows, he knows, but the longer they are here the more chance there is of Kovac finding out about them. Damn it all, they don’t even know if Kovac is in Arkhangelsk, but holy hell if anything happens to them on his watch—

“Jack. Jack!” Mac is shaking him, a little bit, and Jack realizes he’s maybe starting to hyperventilate a little. 

“I’m fine!” he says, curt, shrugging off Mac’s hand.

Mac withdraws from him – and that hurts, but that’s good. 

“Just breathe deeper,” Mac says, and pulls away.

Matty is furious. “Guys, clear the room. I need a moment with Jack.”

They nod and head out.

Matty lets the pause lengthen as Jack sits down, head in his hands.

“Jack,” she says, and he still hears the edge of annoyance in her voice. “First of all, you look like crap. When’s the last time you got any actual shuteye?”

“Matty, I don’t have time for this,” he says. Small talk isn’t an option.

She huffs a sigh. “Fine. Mac, Riley, and Bozer are working for me, not you. What they do for the Phoenix is not up to you, it’s up to me. And before you ask, you know I can’t just pull them out! There’s a chain of command and responsibilities to a lot of people that I have to adhere to. And most importantly, I know you are pushing them away because you want to keep them safe. But Jack, for them their idea of safety is _you_. You’re what keeps them grounded. Without you – if you take that away from them – then you hurt them. You don’t want to hurt them, Jack.”

“Matty, I can’t do my job if they are here!” he growls at her.

“You can do your job _better_ if they are there,” she shoots back at him. “They are not themselves without you, and you are the worst of all without them.”

“I know that, Matty,” he hisses at her. “I know I am; I have had to be since the minute I walked out of the Phoenix, but that’s how Kovac goes down. I can mend fences later, after we’ve taken that bastard down.”

“And if you can’t? You’re smarter than this, Dalton. Use your head. You know how to use the resources around you.”

“Not when the resources are the closest thing to kids I’ve got! I won’t gamble with their lives!” he argues.

“Gamble! These people are highly trained, highly motivated, and completely trustworthy. _Think,_ Jack! Gambling is the wrong analogy here. You’re playing chess, and you need to see all the pieces on the board.”

Jack is rapidly losing patience. “Are you going to pull them out, or no?”

“No.”

“Fine. But if Kovac gets away or any of them gets hurt, Matty, swear to God, it’s on you.”

“Jack! Get your head out of your ass!” she hisses at him, but he is too angry to hear. He marches out of the safe room, past the two bewildered teams, and out the door.

“Woah!” says Steve, throwing out an arm to keep Riley from running out behind him. “Hold up, I’ll go. You guys should probably get back to Matty,” Steve says, motioning back to the open door where Matty’s face is still visible on the open screen.

Riley chews on her thumb, nods twice, and leads the other two back to the secure room.

There’s still fire in Matty’s eyes when they are standing in front of her on the big screen. They can see a muscle in her jaw work as she grits her teeth.

“When he gets back here I swear to God I’m going to write him up for insubordination,” she says. 

“What’s the play, Matty?” Riley asks. 

“Proceed with your mission. What did you find out from the bank?”

“The transactions take place in person, so Rousse’ll be here tomorrow. I am scrubbing through the old bank footage to see if we can maybe ID Rousse beforehand,” Riley says.

“Okay, good. Have you found anything?”

“Umm—” Riley pulls up her rig and opens it. “Actually, yeah,” she says. “I didn’t notice in all the chaos of running into Jack. At the last three transactions (which is as far back as the footage goes), there have been three guys I can’t ID.” She sends the photos to Matty. “They’re always in a group, so they’re together. One of them’s gotta be Rousse, right? And maybe two bodyguards?”

Matty scrutinizes the pictures. “Nobody I recognize. You’ve gotta run this past Jack, maybe he would know.”

Bozer peeks out the door. “He’s not here, Matty. Steve went after him.”

“Fine. There’s no time to waste. Is the rest of the task force there? I’m authorizing you to share this intel with them (though for God’s sake don’t share more than you have to until you know they’re trustworthy). See if any of them can ID Rousse from the photos. I’ve already reached out to Desi but there’s no guarantee she’ll make it in time to help take him down.”

“So do we work together with the task force to bring Rousse in?” Mac asks.

Matty purses her lips. “Hold off on telling them that for as long as you can. I need to talk to some people first. I’ll call you when I have more.”

“And Jack?” Mac asks again.

Matty sighs. “He’s scared for you,” she says. “And my guess is that he hasn’t been sleeping well. That’s why he’s pulling all this bullshit. Don’t let him scare you off.”

“Copy that,” Riley says, heaving a sigh herself. 

“Stay safe, guys. If possible, stay with the task force, tonight. Now that we know Kovac’s involved, I’d feel better about your safety if you can stay with them.”

“Got it, Matty.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Jack doesn’t go far. Steve catches up with him sitting at the tables and chairs outside the tea place next door, staring unseeing at the table. He hands him the coat he’d left inside.

“You okay, Jack?” Steve asks, sitting across from him.

“No,” he says. It punches out of him, and he can feel it reverberate through his bones. 

Steve sits quietly and waits for Jack to continue.

“I—“ Jack lips his lips. “I can’t hunt Kovac and keep those three safe.”

“Far as I can tell, those three look like they can take care of themselves.”

“Y—well, yes, they can,” Jack agrees, meeting Steve’s eyes for the first time since they started the conversation. “Of course they can; they’re all fantastic. But – it’s my job. And I can’t – they’re such different jobs, killing Kovac and protecting those three.”

“Fine,” says Steve. “You concentrate on Kovac, and leave protecting them to me.”

Jack’s eyes again flick over to Steve’s. “I still don’t want them here.”

“I know,” Steve says. “Do you have a choice? Really?”

“No,” he says sullenly, and looks away. “But it shouldn’t be your job to watch out for them. Your job is to help me take down Kovac.”

“You’re overthinking this, brother. Based on what you’ve told me, these three are geniuses invested in taking Kovac down. It’s a smart allocation of resources.”

For the third time, Jack’s eyes meet Steve’s. It seems to stick this time. “Matty said the same thing,” he admitted. 

Steve waits.

“I was kind of a jackass to her just now,” Jack continues. “And them.”

Steve smirks. “I’m sure she’ll never let you hear the end of it.”

There is the tiniest hint of a smirk in the look Jack shoots at him. “You’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you?”

Steve grins. “Yes.”

Jack’s mouth twitches, a barely there whuff of air that might have been attempting to be a chuckle. “I’d deserve that. But seriously, Steve. You’d help me look out for them?”

“Of course,” Steve responds without hesitation. “I know what they mean to you, even if the others don’t. I would have done it anyway.”

Just for a moment, Jack’s tense features slacken with relief. “That would mean a lot,” he says.

“Don’t mention it,” Steve says, an understanding smile on his face. “That’s what we do for _ohana._ ”

“O-what now?” Jack asks.

“ _Ohana._ Hawaiian for family, and a whole lot of family-related concepts.”

Jack’s face softens even more. “I owe you one, brother.”

“Seriously, don’t mention it.”

Jack gets to his feet. “I’m gonna go – do damage control.”

Steve gets up with him. “Take the secure room,” he says, following him back up the stairs.

At the apartment, though, Mac, Riley, and Bozer are surrounded by the rest of the task force by the time they get up there. All of them are poring over printed out photos. As Jack draws nearer, he sees who’s on the photos. His face pales. “That’s John-Michael Redmond. Where did you get those?” he asks.

“We always suspected he was Kovacs’ second-in-command. We could never prove it, and he had friends in high places who kept him out of Chinese prison,” Siyang adds.

“This is footage from previous transactions at the bank,” Riley says.

A slow smile blooms on Theo White’s face. “We’ve got him now,” he drawls, and his eyes glitter. 

So, they draft up a plan. They draft up several plans, and while they’re at it, both Matty and Col. Jackson call and confirm that the teams would be cooperating with one another for this operation, at least.

Jack looks at the guarded expressions on Mac, Riley, and Bozer’s faces and bites his tongue. He wouldn’t stop working to get them back home asap, Steve or no Steve, but it was out of his hands for now.

Latif and Abbas make a food run. Finally, all objections to the plan have been dealt with. It’s getting late, and even Siyang and Chenlong are starting to look a little gray with exhaustion. Finally, Jack makes a decision.

“I’ll go back with you guys to your safehouse,” he says. “We don’t have extra bunks here, and—where is Desi, by the way? You finally run her off?”

“This was supposed to be recon-only; we thought that the transactions were automatic. Desi was on another mission.”

“Hm,” Jack says, running his tongue over his teeth. “Don’t matter. I’ll keep my eye on you till we can get you home.”

“I’m coming with you,” Steve says. 

“You don’t have to, Steve,” Jack says. “Stay here, get some sleep,” he says.

“No way, man. It’s your own rules, remember? Nobody goes anywhere without their partner?”

In spite of himself, Mac feels his heart ache. _He_ is Jack’s partner; _he’s_ supposed to have Jack’s back. He can feel Jack’s eyes on him, but he refuses to acknowledge the gaze.

Jack deflates. “Okay, yeah. Thanks.”

The ride to the Phoenix safehouse is stiff with an awkward, heavy silence. Bozer tries to fill it with jokes, but gives it up after a few minutes and settles into his seat.

They give Jack and Steve one bedroom; Riley moves her stuff into Mac and Bozer’s room. 

Jack takes the first watch, crestfallen as Riley, Mac, and Bozer close the door behind them. 

Steve notices and quirks an eyebrow. “Get in there, Jack,” he says. “I got this watch.”

Jack swallows, nods, and knocks at the door. “Guys? It’s me. Can I come in?”

“Door’s open,” Bozer calls out after a moment.

With one last look at Steve, Jack enters the room. “Hey guys,” he says. 

Riley and Bozer are each sitting on a bed, facing each other. He can hear the faucet behind the closed door opposite the one he came in from – a bathroom, he guesses, and Mac is brushing his teeth.

“What’s up, Jack?” Riley asks, and he really wants to shoot himself at how thoroughly she has schooled her features. He can’t read her anymore.

“I just—came in to check on you guys.”

“We’re fine,” Bozer says, and sizes him up. “Are you…fine?” he asks.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I just—can I sit down?” he says.

Riley switches places so she is next to Bozer, and nods at the place she just vacated. “All yours,” she says, and there it is. An undercurrent of anger.

He sits hard, his strings cut. “I just—you guys understand why I need you to go home, right?” He looks hard at them. 

The door to the bathroom opens and Mac leans against the doorway, listening. Jack acknowledges him with a nod.

“Sure, Jack. You think we need babysitting and you’re afraid we’ll mess up your op. We get it,” Riley says over Jack’s flinch. 

Bozer quirks an eyebrow and shrugs in agreement.

Jack is…gobsmacked, he thinks, gobsmacked is the right word. “Is that what you think?” he looks up at Mac. “You think that?”

“Are we wrong?” Mac says. “I can’t watch you—those were your words. It’s too risky.”

“But Mac, you know why. I told you why. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!”

“I know what you told me. I know what you wrote in your letter to me. We actually – we shared your letters to each of us. We know. But things change. That was almost three years ago.”

Bozer picks up. “Since then you haven’t been around, and we’ve missed you, but we’ve been fine. We always want you around, but Jack, we’ve been fine.”

“We don’t need a babysitter, Jack,” Riley agrees. “And the whole ‘being a killer in front of you guys’ thing? I’m still furious about that,” she says, leaning close enough that Jack actually finches again. “You think we don’t know who you are? Where you came from? You think we haven’t seen you kill people before? Or that we don’t know how much you restrain yourself? You think we haven’t killed people too? That never influenced how we felt about you before, why the hell would you think it would now?” With that final question, she jumps to her feet. They can hear her trying to get her breathing under control as she grabs her coat from the foot of the bed. 

Jack blinks a moment, ears buzzing, and reaches for her as she slips past him. “Riley, wai—“

“ _Don’t,_ ” she bites out, shrugging his hand away. “I need a minute.”

“Aren’t you going to let me answer?” Jack asks.

“Why should I? Isn’t this how you treated us back there?” she says, eyes red.

“I did, and that was wrong. I’m sorry – that was really childish of me and it was the wrong way to react. But, I was…“ His voice breaks, but he gathers himself and tries again. “Fucking terrified!” he spits out. “I’m terrified that Kovac will find out about you; that he’ll kill again, that he’s killing this instant while we’re spinning in circles!”

“But we aren’t spinning in circles, Jack,” Mac sits down next to him, rests a hand over his shoulder, suddenly gentle. Jack’s not really sure what he revealed by his outburst, but his senses swim a bit at the warmth and familiarity of his presence. “Did you talk to your team? Even they were really pleased at the intel we shared with them. Don’t you want to hear it?” 

He dares to look at Riley again – and her features have softened too. She sits back down, next to him this time, and the compassion in her face makes his eyes blur with tears. “We are really smart, Jack. So is Kovac – you think he can’t get to us no matter where we are? This is a good thing,” she says, tucking her arm into his. Bozer too scoots closer, across him, and places a warm hand on his knee. “With you is always the safest place for us to be, and this way, we can combine our intel, our skills, everything we got, and take this prime asshole down,” she finishes.

“Yeah, man,” Bozer says. “Between all of us, you really think Kovac has a chance? Let us help you kick his ass, and then once that’s done we’re taking you for a long vacation because I have never seen you wound up this tight, man!”

And he’s shaking, a little bit, Jack is shaking, but somehow a chuckle emerges from his chest. “Yeah, okay,” he says, and if it’s a little hoarse and shaky, well, nobody minds.


	6. Chapter 6

They’re ready, in the morning.

They get up early, reconvene with the rest of Jack’s team, and review the plan.

Riley and Siyang as overwatch. Bozer and and Chenlong on surveillance and getaway. Leela to drug Redmond as she leaves the bank by “not looking where I’m going, so sorry, that’s going to be the death of me.” 

It’s a slow-acting drug – should be enough time to complete the transaction, then collapse as he’s leaving the bank. Jack, Steve, Abbas, and Chenlong to distract the guards; Jack and Abbas in the bank, Steve and Chenlong outside it. Latif and Theo to bag Redmond. Mac agrees to wait in the van with Riley and Siyang as backup. 

It should work. There are enough of them to make it work. They’re going to get Redmond and get him to lead them to Kovac.

Nobody is surprised when it goes sideways almost immediately. 

The bodyguards break the protocol that they’d been following for the last recorded transactions. Instead of each of them entering in simultaneously through the glass doors, the bodyguards sandwich Redmond in the middle. He doesn’t touch anything, and so Leela can’t get to him in the way they’d planned.

“I can get it done, but it won’t be pretty,” she says into her coms. “They might get the wind up. Should I do it, or abort?”

Jack groans. “Something must have spooked him this morning to break protocol. This might blow up in our faces.”

“Jack! Should I do it or not?” she asks again.

“Do it!” Mac jumps in, and they hear him rummaging around over coms. “I have an idea. Two ideas! Tracker on the vehicle – given the alloys used in that particular make of car I can—“

“Second idea, Mac, what is it?” Jack cuts in. 

“Spill a hot coffee on him. Here, Siyang – just put that right under the rear taillight. I’m coming in with the coffee now – make your play, Leela.”

“Jack?” she double-checks.

“You heard the man! We can’t afford not to take this shot!”

“Here goes nothing.” They hear the clip of her heels as she walks into the bank, and from cameras everyone winces at the overdramatic stumble she makes that sends her sprawling into Redmond. As she makes her apologies, she swipes at him with the sedative, trying to prick him with the hidden injector, but the bodyguards tear her off him before she can do more than give him half the dose.

“Damn it,” she hisses. “I couldn’t give him the whole dose,” she said, wavering around in the bank as though she were drunk. “They’re going to escort me out in a minute,” she says, and they can see on the cameras the three security guards coming towards her. “All right, all right, I’m going, no need to get fussy!” she slurs, lurching towards to the door. 

“Mac, come on, now’s the time to make your play!” 

Mac comes running up, hot coffee in hand – and plows straight into Leela, who angles herself to fall right back into Redmond. He drops her as soon as the hot coffee lands on his pristine suit collar, but she manages to finish dosing him. 

Mac stammers out apologizes profusely, and even confesses that he had been causing problems the previous day and this whole business venture is doomed start to finish, and he should just quit while he’s ahead, he’s had so many problems.

A muscle in Redmond’s jaw ticks, but he says nothing until Mac’s monologue is done. He rejects Mac’s offer to pay to clean his suit, wishes him well with his business venture, and moves further into the bank with nothing more than blank disinterest on his face.

Everyone waits with baited breath while he does the transaction. “He’s slowing down, guys, definitely,” Bozer tells them, watching on the camera.

But he isn’t slowing down fast enough. By the time he is ready to leave the bank, he only looks a bit pale and wobbly on his feet.

“He doesn’t look anywhere near ready to collapse!” Leela says, frustrated.

“It’s fine,” Steve says. “Mac and Siyang got the tracker on the car.”

“Actually this could be a good thing. Follow the truck; my guess is that once he passes out or gets sick, they’ll stop the car to check on him. We can grab him then and take the guards out,” Mac says.

Thankfully, it works: a couple miles out, they stop the car to try to resuscitate Redmond. Jack, Steve, and Chenlong incapacitate the guards and grab Redmond, who is by this time unconscious. 

Jack directs Mac, Bozer, Riley, and Leela to go in a separate car and follow them to the safehouse – but not to get out of the car until Jack gives them the all clear. He doesn’t want Redmond to make any connections between the two civilians who’d run into him and an international team put together to hunt him down.

They secure and blindfold Redmond and get him into the safehouse. Only when he is locked down does Jack come downstairs, to the car parked across the street and knocks on the front passenger window. Leela opens it. “Are we good to come in, Jack?”

“Yeah, you go on ahead. I need a minute with these three please.”

She nods and lets herself out of the car. He slides in to her place.

“What’s going on, Jack?” Bozer asks from the back seat. He catches Jack grimacing as he visibly collects himself.

“Don’t watch the interrogation,” he says.

“Why not?” Riley asks, eyebrows furrowed. She’s in the driver’s seat.

Jack digs his thumb into his palm. “We’re gonna break him,” he says quietly. “If not me, then the Chinese or the Saudis. They’ll cross lines that we or the British won’t. It’s going to take time and it’s going to be unethical, and I really, really don’t want you to see that. I’m begging you: don’t watch it.” 

Mac stares at Jack in the rearview mirror. “Okay, Jack,” he says, quieting Bozer and Riley’s questions. “We’ll go back to our safehouse. Will you come and debrief us after it’s finished?”

Jack’s shoulders visibly relax. “Yes. As soon as I dare. _Thank you._ ”

Mac nods. Jack claps a hand over Bozer’s shoulder, kisses Riley’s cheek, and leaves the car.

“Are you sure, Mac?” Riley asks in the quiet that follows.

“No,” Mac answers. “But we can give him this.” 

“Okay.” Turning the car on, she sends one last look at the house and wonders about what would happen in that house that night.

“So…Jack seems…different,” Bozer says into the quiet car. 

Mac’s eyes meet his briefly. “This is more like the Jack I first met back in Afghanistan.”

Bozer’s eyebrows quirk upward. “He was this uptight?”

“Yeah,” Mac admitted. “Maybe more. He…had to be. You couldn’t help it there; we were literally going from bomb to bomb and it just—“

They can hear Mac’s voice getting progressively strained until it just runs out.

“Mac?”

His eyes jerk back to his. “After a while, all you hear is ticking. It’s kinda—like, um—”

And the stutter is so uncharacteristic both Riley and Bozer flinch. Mac utters another uncharacteristic sigh and looks out the window, away from their gazes. 

“It gets in your head, and it starts to feel like you _are_ the bomb,” Mac admits.

Bozer’s eyes soften in sympathy. “So that’s why you’re so good at bringing him down. You know what it’s like.”

Mac grimaces in acknowledgment. “Living at that level of stress for prolonged periods of time gets to you after a while.”

Riley nods. “Are we…going to let him send us back? You know he’s going to try again to get Matty to bring us back in, if he hasn’t already.”

Mac crosses his arms in front of his chest. Biting his lip, he shakes his head. “No. He’ll definitely try, but I—he’s really—“

“He’s not doing great,” Bozer supplies. 

“Yeah. We need to put Kovac down, and we need to get Jack home asap.” Mac says. Easier to articulate what needs to be done.

“Agreed. No matter what?” Riley asks.

“No matter what,” Mac agrees.

“Yeah, no matter what,” says Bozer.

“This could get…rough,” Mac cautions.

“We know.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

It takes ten hours.

Mac, Bozer, and Riley are very intentional about how they spend the time. Dinner, safehouse, showers, and sleep.

No real sleeping happens, to be honest. 

Eventually, they congregate in the apartment’s living room. Oddly, the one English channel available on the TV is playing Magnum P.I. reruns. 

They settle in to wait.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

The things they do make Jack’s skin crawl.

Slow interrogation is not his specialty. 

But it is Steve’s. 

It is Siyang’s. 

It is Latif’s.

Even the rest of them don’t seem too fazed by the gradual intensifying, from psychological discomfort to outright torture. Jack feels like he shouldn’t either – he knows Redmond’s cruelties; he knows he is a monster too.

They start with stripping Redmond of his clothing and replacing it with cheap sweatpants and sweatshirt. They leave him barefoot.

They deny him water.

They play loud rock music into the cell the whole time, and damn if Jack ever wants to listen to it ever again.

It gets nastier.

The Chinese and Saudis get involved and it gets a lot nastier.

Redmond breaks.

_He breaks._

Jack calmly walks out of the viewing room, locks himself in the bathroom, and throws up everything he’s ever eaten. 

He is still yellow when he walks out of the bathroom. Abbas throws him an understanding look, and shows him several maps of what seems to be some sort of settlement. “Redmond gave up Kovac’s location,” he tells him. 

Jack’s eyes snap up. “How old are these images?”

“Eight days,” Abbas answers.

Siyang, SAT phone held up to her ear, walks toward them. “We have satellites in the area,” she says, and there is still blood on her clothes. “I’m getting eyes there now.”

“Where is this?” Jack asks.

“Eighty miles north from here,” Steve responds. “We’re close, Jack.”

Leela looks up from where she’s been studying the maps. “We can’t drive in all the way,” she says. “They’ll see us coming from miles away in the snow. At best we can only drive 55, maybe 60 miles in.

We’ll have to walk the rest of the way, and cover is spotty.”

“We’ll need to go now anyway,” Steve says. “Can’t risk that Kovac doesn’t already know he’s been compromised. Do we know how many people are in there?”

A quick rattle of Chinese draws their attention to Siyang. She speaks crisply, all sharp attention and eyes fixed at Chenlong. 

Chenlong is already pulling up a laptop and clacking away at the keyboard. “Ten minutes,” he says as Siyang hangs up the phone. 

“Yes, the satellite will be over the area in ten minutes,” Siyang confirms.

Jack gusts out a deep breath. “Okay,” he says, gathering himself. “Okay…”

Steve lobs him a bottle of water. “Drink that,” he orders. 

Latif pitches in. “We do not know for certain that Kovac is there,” he says. “According to Redmond—“

“Who we should not trust—” Abbas interjects.

“Yes, but according to him, no one knows where Kovac is at any time. They only see him through meets prearranged by his bodyguards,” he says.

“I buy that,” Steve interjects. “Good countersurveillance protocols.”

“Anyway, we cannot depend on the satellite for accurate heat mapping,” Siyang says. “Given the snow and ice and the very heavy insulation that would be needed for buildings in such a climate, we may get no heat signatures at all.”

“So current imaging would just show us that there’s still a settlement there or not. Maybe vehicles, if they are parked outdoors,” Steve says.

“Weather’s too uncertain,” Jack guesses. “More likely any vehicles would be protected indoors.” 

Leela purses her lips. “So we’re likely going in blind,” she says. “Satellites or no. Just peachy.”

“What’s our objective?” Theo asks. 

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Jack says. “We have to find out why Kovac’s buying black market weapons in the US and if he has anything going down there right now. If he’s there, we need to take him alive so we can get more intel. If he isn’t, we still need to get any intel we can. So when we infiltrate, we gotta wing whoever we find, not kill if we can help it. 

Siyang and Chenlong look up from the laptop they’ve been poring over. Jack feels his heart freeze at the look on their faces. “Satellite images over the last couple hours show a lot of movement out of the settlement.”

“They’re onto us,” Jack says, feeling all the color drain out of him again. “Oh, fuck me.”

Frustrated, they drop into the chairs around them. 

Abbas shakes his head. “We still have to go,” the swarthy man says, getting to his feet. In his anger, his accent thickens. “We don’t know that they are all gone, and there must be some intel we can find in that entire settlement.”

“And where would they go?” Chenlong says. “If they are on the move, it should be easier to track them. We see six SUVs leaving the compound.”

Steve crosses his arms. “We should split up,” he says. “Some of us go to the compound, and some to try to trace the SUVs.”

Jack doesn’t seem to hear, lost in thought and chewing on his thumb.

“Jack?” Leela prods.

He startles. “Um – yeah – splitting up is smart. Just – _damn it_ – I think we need Mac on this one.” 

Steve quirks an eyebrow. “I thought having him here was the last thing you wanted?”

“It is, damn it all. But if they’ve burned the place, well, Mac is really good at reconstructing things. I saw him recreate a burned photo well enough to ID – well, a nasty piece of work.” 

From his toes, it seems like, Jack drags up a sigh. “We can’t afford to lose Kovac, Steve.”

_And frankly,_ Jack thinks, _if Mac knows I passed up a lead on Kovac just to protect his hide, he’ll never forgive me._

_And frankly,_ he admits after a pause, _I’d never forgive me either._

“I’m going to call Mac and have him meet us here. Leela, Siyang, Abbas, Chenlong, you’ll stay on those SUVs. Leela, I’ll ask Riley to help you. If you find them, call us before you engage. Steve, Theo, Latif, Mac, Bozer, and I’ll head to the compound. Any objections?”

After confirming that everyone was clear, Jack pulls out his phone and calls Mac.

“Mac? We need you. Get yourselves over here asap and bring all your gear. We got Kovac’s compound, but we think they might have burned it. I’ll debrief you all when you get here.”

“Acknowledged, Jack. We’re on our way.”


	7. Chapter 7

If Jack had been stressed before, he was utterly collected now.

“Everyone stay on high alert,” he instructs as they near the compound. It’s late – just getting past two in the morning. “Even if it looks abandoned, check and verify. We don’t know if there are any hideyholes scattered around this place and we don’t want any surprises.”

They split off into pairs: Steve claims Bozer; Theo and Latif, and Mac and Jack. There are six buildings to infiltrate.

It’s eerily quiet – the kind of quiet, Jack thinks, means either the place is abandoned or shit is about to go down.

And yet, it goes seamlessly – mostly because, as Siyang had figured, the place had been abandoned. Each team checks in after clearing their buildings, and they had been rapidly and quietly getting further into the compound.

Until Steve and Bozer get to the last – and largest – building in the compound. 

“Guys, there’s some kind of activity in building six,” Bozer whispers. “We can hear machine noise.”

“Copy that,” Jack says. “All teams converge on building six for backup. You two wait for us.”

When they enter, there is a brief exchange of gunfire despite orders to stand down. At the end of it, two of Kovac’s men are lying dead in front of…

“Paper shredders! Shut them off!” Mac says, lunging to unplug the two hefty machines before they ate up any more of the paper loaded into their trays. “They left them behind to destroy evidence.”

Jack nods, crouching down to snap photos of the two dead men. “Swear to God I’m going soft in my old age, but these two were doomed the minute they were assigned to this gig. I bet they did something to piss Kovac off, or were otherwise expendable. Ri?” he says, switching his comm. “You busy? Sending you photos. Can you ID these guys?”

Theo and Latif start sifting through the papers that hadn’t been shredded. There’s still quite a bit – and three garbage bags full of already shredded materials that Mac is disconsolately picking over.

“Many receipts here,” Latif says, holding up a stack of them. “Some of them are from here, but there are some that are in Arabic and English.”

“Lots of maps and what looks like account numbers too,” Theo adds. “Not sure where the maps are of.”

Jack nods. “Mac,” he says. “You’ve got your thinking face on. What’s cooking, brother?”

Mac blinks. “I think Riley and I can ‘unshred’ these papers. If we do it via scanning in the pieces, Riley’s tech, with some modifications, should be able to reconstruct the documents.”

“Let’s do it,” Jack says. “Pack up all paper documents to take back to base. Umm – Bozer and Theo, you two hike back and get the SUVs. We’re gonna need to pack up stuff with us. Mac and Latif, keep doing your thing. Steve, you and I will go back through the buildings and see what we can find before we call in a team to process this place fully.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

“Mac, what is Two Egg? I see many references to it in the receipts.”

Mac comes over to Latif’s stack of documents and squints at the crumpled up receipt Latif has unfolded and taped over a piece of cardboard. “I’ve been seeing it everywhere too. Could it be a restaurant? Ri? Can you check?”

“Yeah,” she says. He can hear her tapping away at her keys over the sound of her yawning. 

“Sorry, Ri. I know it’s late – we should be done soon,” he tells her.

“No problem, Mac. Okay, Two Egg is…” she snorts. “It’s an unincorporated community in Jackson County, Florida. Middle of nowhere.”

Mac and Latif, suddenly alert, exchange looks of horror. “He’s in the US,” Mac says.   
“We need to tell Matty. This is officially an active terrorist threat.”

Riley straightens. “Send me snapshots of your Two Egg receipts,” she says. “Actually, send me snapshots of all the receipts you’ve got. If they’re all in Florida, I should be able to triangulate a position that might lead us to him.”

“On it,” Mac says. “We’ll get those to you. I’m gonna notify Jack.”

The radio signal crackles loudly in the warehouse Jack and Steve are documenting. A little over two hours, they’re on the third building. Kovac had managed to clear out a good deal of the goods, but Jack and Steve had discovered the remnants of what they were fairly sure was an extensive coke lab, barracks for about thirty soldiers, and a luxuriant little pad for, they guessed, Kovac himself.

“Overwatch, do you copy?”

“Sure thing, Carl’s Junior, go ahead.”

Mac rolls his eyes. “We’ve got a possible lead. How far out are you guys?”

“Two buildings to go, bud.”

“He’s been spending a lot of time in Florida lately. We’re still collating receipts, but a bunch of them are from a town called Two Egg. He’s been stockpiling goods for something.”

“Stockpiling goods in the Florida boonies? Fuck. We’re coming to you.”

“Copy,” Mac acknowledges.

Steve beside him looks pained. “He’s stockpiling on American soil?”

“Yeah. We gotta report in to Jackson,” Jack says. “Get the feds in on it too.”

“Agreed,” Steve says. 

They race to the last building. As Mac is debriefing Matty by sat phone, Latif shows them the intel they’d pieced together from receipts and shredded documents. The materials have a lot of gaps and missing pieces, but two things are clear: he has a lot of people in Florida, and they are well-equipped.

“Jack, it’s Matty for you,” Mac says, handing him the phone.

She doesn’t bother with hellos.

“What’s your plan, Jack?” 

“Debriefing Jackson and getting our butts to Florida,” he says, equally sparse.

“Good. Don’t wait – leave now. You all need to get there asap and avert whatever’s going down.”

“We haven’t finished processing this place, Matty. There’s still intel to glean from it.”

“That’s fine – I’ll instruct Riley to stay to process the intel. Desi should be there in a day or two; she can help and keep her eye on Riley.”

“Yeah, good. We’ve got a couple analysts too – I’ll leave two to help, and take the rest with me,” Jack responds.

“Good luck, Jack. Be careful.”

They wait only long enough to hand off the compound to the covert team that would process it. On the way back, they call the rest of the team and instruct them to meet them at the airport, leaving Riley, Chenlong, Siyang, and Latif to continue processing the compound. 

Nobody notices Chenlong startle, palm a surveillance picture of a little Chinese boy from a stack of papers, and slip away to make some phone calls. 

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Within two hours, they’re boarding the jet to Florida. Jack and Abbas take the cockpit, leaving Mac, Bozer, Steve, Theo, Abbas, Leela, and Chenlong to arrange themselves. 

Exhaustion is apparent on everyone’s faces – they’ve been going nonstop for nearly 48 hours now, and the long flight is a welcomed reprieve. It shows in the way that the task force relax into their seats and close their eyes, no hesitation or insecurity in their coiled bodies and trim physiques. 

Bozer is uncharacteristically silent. Mac understands, though; he too is feeling – not intimidated, but certainly not comfortable either, among this group of well-trained fighters. Without Riley, they’re off kilter and ill at ease; with Jack keeping his distance, they’re at sea. 

Their reunion really wasn’t what they had expected. Bozer looks over at Mac next to him and quirks an eyebrow, and Mac nods. “Yeah,” he says quietly enough not to be heard by the others. “I’ll do first watch.”

Bozer’s mouth twitches a grateful acknowledgment. He rests his head back, and after a few false starts Mac can tell when Bozer finally relaxes and nods off, a little sigh escaping from his lips. 

An echoing sigh gusts from Mac’s chest without his awareness. 

If you asked, Mac would tell you that waiting wasn’t his strongest characteristic. It wasn’t that he was impatient – it was just that he wasn’t too good with uncertainty. With not having answers. 

And it was one thing if it was for science, or for bad guys who would in the end always go down if he had anything to say about it (and his track record showed that he had a lot to say about it.)

But this is personal. 

This is Jack, and – Jack is not himself.

The pushing away, the keeping at a distance. 

Mac kind of wishes he could have a private conversation with Bozer and Riley to discuss.

It was just so _wrong_. This Jack.

Mac isn’t, in fact, sure that them tagging along was the best idea. 

But he also didn’t dare leave Jack again. 

He understands, he guesses, why Jack was so adamant about them not being part of his team. But it doesn’t matter. The fact is, it wasn’t the time or place. 

They had to get Kovac _now,_ so they can bring Jack home and take actual care of him.

A hand on Mac’s shoulder draws his attention. “You should try to get some sleep,” Steve says, dropping into the seat across from him. A couple rows back, Siyang answers her phone, urgency bleeding even through her quick, hushed tones.

Mac shrugs. He doesn’t feel like being particularly friendly. “Yeah,” he says. “Just need some time to think.”

Steve is studying him closely. “Your team did good today,” he says. “If anything, you’re better than what Jack told me.”

Mac shrugs again. He aims for disaffected, but Steve can tell by the way Mac’s eyes darken that the kid is upset. “Well, Jack hasn’t been around for the last three years. Things have changed.”

“Believe me, nothing eats at him more than that does. You know it’s why he’s as tense as he is, right? He’s been working night and day to get this mission completed so he can get back to you guys.” 

Mac squashes a little wave of irritation. “So now that we’re here, he does everything he can to push us away?”

“To keep you safe. The job’s not done yet,” Steve says.

Mac snorts. “That’s bullshit and Jack knows it. This is what we do, and we’re a hell of a team – when we’re all on the same page, not “lone-wolfing” it out there.”

Steve can’t help a chuckle. “My God, you sound just like Danny. Chin and Kono had that talk with me before too.”

“Wait, Chin and Kono? You’re the 5-O Steve?” Mac says, light dawning in his eyes.

“Sure am. You left quite an impression on my team.”

Mac smirks just a little bit. “They were awesome,” he says.

Steve chuckles, sobers. “Look, Mac. I know this is none of my business, but speaking as – well, as someone who was used to being a lone wolf for a really long time. People like me and Jack, we…we aren’t used to people…not letting us wallow in our bad sides. Or letting us lone-wolf it for too long. People who…want to be there even when things are bad. Usually we’re the strong ones, but…you’re the ones we fall back on.”

Mac’s eyes are a little red by the time Steve finishes speaking. So he nods. “Believe me, I know. We know.”

Steve gets what Mac is saying, memories springing up unbidden of going after Danny. 

He really likes this kid.

“Get some sleep, Mac. Don’t worry – I got you. Get some sleep. We switch pilots every four hours. I’ll make sure you get some privacy then.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Jack emerges from the cockpit with his joints audibly cracking with every step.

Mac stirs at the sound of the door opening. “It sounds like you’re walking on bubble wrap,” he says with a wince.

“Man, I feel like I could use some bubble wrap for these old bones,” Jack says, dropping into the seat Steve had vacated to take his turn piloting. Mac twists in his seat to look him in the eye.

“You look like hell,” Mac states.

“Feel like it too,” Jack admits. “It’s been a hell of a couple of years.”

“’m sorry, Jack,” Bozer butts in.

Jack smiles at the young man, yawning in front of him. “’s okay, Boze.”

Mac snakes his hand across the chair and rests it over Jack’s wrist, resting loose on his leg. “Are we good, or are you gonna be fighting us the rest of the way?”

Sighing, Jack sags deeper into the seat. Heart sinking, Mac watches as Jack’s pretense at normalcy melts away and lines just seem to etch themselves further into Jack’s face. Jack is tired, his face drawn. He looks _old_ , in a way he never has before.

Mac feels his heart twist in sympathy. 

Jack isn’t quite able to meet Mac’s eyes just yet, and settles for twisting his wrist so that Mac’s fingers are resting on his pulse. There’s an apology in the way he brings his other hand to rest gently over Mac’s, and Mac realizes: he forgot. He forgot just how much Jack communicated and spilled out through touch and how much it meant to him.

Jack is quiet for a long time.

“I’m running on empty, Mac,” he confesses. His pulse confirms it, racing underneath Mac’s fingertips.

Mac lets out a slow breath, knows that Jack hears the way it shakes at the end, and makes a decision. He slides his hand so he can grip Jack’s palm. “Please,” he breathes out. “We can help.”

He knows his pulse is steady. He knows, because helping Jack beats in his blood. Because he can feel Bozer and Riley wide awake, attentive, and leaning forward, every bit as willing.

Finally, Jack brings his sight up to look at Mac – and his eyes are red and wet. “Yeah,” he swallows. “Okay, Mac,” he tells him.

Jack is not the type of person to look back. Steeling himself, he drags in a deep, trembling breath. On the exhale, he lets all the fear out with it. “Okay,” he says again, and it’s clearer this time. 

He means it, Jack realizes. He means it – and it hits him like a gut punch that he was a moron for holding out against it so hard. “I’m sorry,” he says, and it spills out of him almost before he decided to say it. 

“It’s okay, Jack.” Mac responds without hesitation, and it’s confirmed by Bozer’s compassionate gaze. 

“We got your back, man,” Bozer says. 

“ _Finally,_ ” Mac says, relaxing back into his seat. “Now that we’re on the same page, let’s nail this bastard.”

Jack’s smile is shaky, but it holds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3 you guys! Your continued encouragement means a lot to me. I got accepted to grad school and then work got crazy, so I haven't had a lot of time lately - but I still have every intention of finishing this fic!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are the best. THE BEST. Thanks for your encouragement - it means a lot to me! :)

Back in Arkhangelsk, Chenlong signals Siyang. When no one is looking, they both slip outside into the night.

He shows her, wordlessly, the picture he had palmed of the little boy. Their little boy, whom they had left safe and secured in a protected compound with their parents. 

She startles. It’s a barely there movement, blink-and-you-miss-it, but it’s the first time anything has penetrated the polite, calculated façade she had donned the moment they’d set foot on US soil.

Chenlong knows her, so he notices the slight hitch in breathing that signifies that the tiny woman – his _wife_ – is furious. 

She takes a deep breath, and when she speaks it is collected, thoughtful. She cants her head to one side and curses the ancestors of both Kovac and the Chinese government back to the 18th generation.

Chenlong permits himself a smile, and something in Siyang is eased by seeing how wolfish and full of sharp teeth it is.

She studies the picture. It is simply a picture of their son, playing in a park, being doted on by his grandparents. “Too many questions,” she whispers. “This was in the pile of things to be shredded,” she says. “If he has leverage over us, why has he not used it?”

“I think Kovac still has friends in China,” Chenlong says. “I think he is keeping us in reserve as leverage.” He flips the picture to the back. In the bottom right hand corner, nearly indelible, is a series of numbers.

Siyang’s eyes narrow. “We should tell the others.”

Chenlong agrees.

On hearing the news, Riley and Latif, horrified that a child might be in jeopardy, spring into action, clacking away on their computers to try to track down the number. Chenlong calls Jack and puts him on speaker.

“Walk us through this, Chen,” Jack asks. “Who knew where your son is? What’s at stake here?”

“Most likely, it is Kovacs’ supporters in the Chinese government,” Chenlong says. “Not everyone supported Chinese involvement in this task force.”

Siyang backs him, and Riley spares just an instant to admire their seamlessness. “Dishonest members of our government have profited off Kovac,” she says. “I would not put it past them to sell us out,” she finishes.

“But neither of you have been contacted?” Jack verifies. His voice is incredibly gentle, and Siyang feels her eyes burn. (Riley, Mac, and Bozer feel it too.)

“No,” she says. 

“Can you check in with your parents without anyone knowing?” Steve breaks in.

“Impossible,” Chenlong says. “The security in there is the best China has to offer. Even for the people living inside the compound.”

Mac’s voice comes in tinny over the speakers. “But you guys know all the specs to the place, right? I bet Riley and I can rig something up if you guys are willing to talk things over with us. Can your parents take your son and get themselves to safety? Or you said that there are other people in the compound – can they warn them, step up security maybe?”

Chenlong and Siyang exchange glances. “Yes, we know the specifications,” Siyang replies. “And if they are there, and we can get the information to them, then yes, my parents can take steps to protect the entire compound.”

“Okay, then—“

“Guys,” Riley’s voice breaks through, and it’s oddly excited. “It’s a phone number, on the picture,” she says. “I traced it.”

“And?” Bozer prompts when she pauses.

“It’s unregistered (I think it’s a foreign phone), but it’s _on_ , and I’ve traced it to a location just outside Two Egg, Florida,” she says.

Bozer gets it first, and whoops. “You found Kovac’s lair!” he says.

“Well,” Leela cautions dourly. “You found something.”

“Leela’s right, Boze,” Jack agrees. “We don’t know what this is yet. At the very least, we’ve found a place to start looking.”

“What do you want us to do here, Jack?” Latif asks.

“When is the forensics team gonna get there, Riles?” Jack asks.

“Tomorrow.”

“Ok. Hand it off to the team and get yourselves over here to Two Egg. In the meantime, you four, Siyang, Chenlong, Riley, and Mac: figure out what it takes to check in with your parents in China and do it. We need to know what’s the situation here before we can breach whatever location that cell is in. On our end, Leela and Abbas, you’re on the Two Egg location. Bozer and Theo, catch some z’s and spell Leela and Abbas in four hours. Steve and I’ll do the flying. Find out everything you can before we land. Sitrep in four hours.”

“We copy, Jack,” Riley responds. 

“Stay on alert, you guys.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Five hours later, Mac, Riley, and the Chinese couple have rigged up something vaguely resembling an answering machine hooked up to a cell phone with three antennas pointing out of the top. 

“I think this’ll do it,” Riley says, smug. “We totally need to patent it when we’re done here.”

Siyang hardly spares a glance as Mac uses the intercom to tell the cockpit they’d done it. “Call them,” Jack directs, nodding at Steve to set the autopilot. “We’re coming.”

Chenlong is dialing before Jack has finished speaking, and the entire plane seems to hush as he makes the call.

But none of them need to know Chinese in order to realize something has gone horribly wrong as the phone rings and rings and rings.

It goes on ringing, and they wait. Ten, fifteen, twenty-five rings before Siyang suddenly reaches and snaps it shut.

“Siyang,” Theo says. “What’s going on?”

Her face is pale. “The number is disconnected.”

“That can’t be good news, can it?” he presses.

She shakes her head. 

“Mac, is there something you can do?” Jack asks.

Mac’s drawn face is a response in itself. “Try calling the usual way,” he urges.

They do, but still get the same thing: unending rings.

“Motherfucker!” Jack swears under his breath. He runs his hands through his hair – a nervous tick Mac recognizes back from their days in the sandbox, and Mac can almost see Jack’s mind flicking through the possibilities. 

Abbas gets it a split second before the others do. “We have to stick to the plan we’ve got,” he said. “It’s our best and most timely chance for further information.” 

“We could split up,” Leela suggests. “Some of us can go to China to go after them with you. I’ve passed for half-Chinese before, and I can speak a passable Mandarin.”

Siyang shoots her a grateful glance. “Thank you, that means a lot. But we could not smuggle you into the country and keep you undetected for long enough. It would be too risky,” she says. Chenlong agrees. “The very security measures designed to keep us safe also police us,” he says, and the others are surprised. While they all had occasionally indulged in self-deprecating humor at the expense of their country, Chenlong’s still mild statement had been much more blunt than anyone had expected a Chinese operative to make.

Still, Steve supposes, having your country come after your family for going after the guy they sent you to take out would make anybody question their allegiances. 

“Abbas is right,” Jack finally says. “But ultimately, it’s your son. You get the final say.” 

Siyang nods, once, decisive though her face is pale. 

“We keep going. There isn’t a minute to waste.”

Chenlong agrees. “Our parents are…well connected,” he says delicately. “We can do more for them from here.”

Jack nods. “Then we hit the ground running. At least stateside we can use Phoenix resources too. Bozer, you and Riley coordinate with Matty. We need a safehouse in Florida set up and ready for us by the time we land in, oh, three and a half hours,” he says, checking his watch. “Get Phoenix intel on the location, see if you can verify our intel. Do that asap, and then Steve and I will plan infiltration. Steve and I need to go debrief our superiors.”

“I can pilot the plane,” Theo volunteers.

“I will help,” Abbas adds.

“Thanks,” Jack says. “Siyang, Chenlong, is there anything else you can do to contact your parents?”

The Chinese pair exchange glances. “Maybe,” Chenlong says. 

“Do it. Keep trying – whatever it takes.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Matty comes through in a big way, aided by Navy and Jack’s Army intel. By the time they land in Florida, a full TAC team is waiting with infrared imaging of a well-fortified compound. It shows only five heat signatures in there, and they’ve been able to identify three of them by cross-referencing the receipts from the warehouse in Arkhangelsk with security videos.

They aren’t able to identify the other two. One of them may or may not be Kovac – they can’t tell.

“Damn it all!” Theo says in the new safe house. They’ve been trying for hours to identify the other two men, and all of them are getting antsy by the enforced delay. “Do we breach or no?”

“Breach,” Siyang urges, face tight. “We have no choice!”

Chenlong differs. “We cannot!” he says. “If we tip our hand, Kovac will go to ground and we’ll miss any chance of taking him down and of protecting our son!”

“It’s the only way forward,” Latif says. “We have no other actionable intel, and we cannot afford any delays for more.”

In the end, they put it to a vote. Seven out of the eleven are in favor of attacking the compound – so they do it. They task Riley and Leela for coms and oversight, and the rest of them head out to the compound under cover of darkness. They’re mid-breach when Riley spots something odd on the infrared. “Leela, look at this. That section there, what is that? Is it… _getting hotter?_ ” Her voice goes up half an octave.

“Shit, there’s another heat signature! Jack, look—”

But the rest of Leela’s warning is swallowed up in an explosion that sets their ears ringing and whites out their infrared screen. 

By the time their vision clears and their ears stop ringing, they are both reeling with horror. 

“Jack!?”

“Theo!”

_“Anybody copy? Anybody out there?”_

It’s just static for endless minutes. Riley and Leela have grabbed first aid kits, called ambulances to the area, and are in the car before finally – _finally_ – somebody grunts a response.

“Here.” It’s Latif, and even that effort sets the man to coughing weakly. 

“Oh thank God! Latif, we are on our way,” Leela says.

“Are you safe where you are? Can you move to safety?” Riley adds. 

More grunting erupts, and the sound of something dragging. 

Then a brutal pause. 

“I found Chenlong.”

The tone of voice he used told them all they needed to know. 

“I will bring him with me,” Latif says. The pained grunting redoubles. 

“Uggh, what the fuck!” The statement snaps out oddly sharp and exaggerated, and Riley gasps in relief. “Bozer! Is that you?”

“What?” he calls out, still loud and cautious. “Is someone there?” 

“Me, Bozer! It’s Riley! I’m in comms!”

Leela, who is driving, darts a quick look at her. “His ears are probably still ringing from the explosion,” she said. “Just give him a minute.”

A wordless _oh_ leaves Riley’s mouth. “Still,” she says helplessly. “I have to try.”

“Boze,” she all but shouts into the piece. “We are on our way, okay? Just hang tight, we’re gonna get you out.”

“Riley!” he says, and there is relief and recognition in his tone. “I know what you sound like but I can’t make out what you’re saying. Think I got my bell rung pretty good,” he mutters under his breath. “World keeps spinning.”

She keeps up a stream of murmured reassurances until he can hear her and talk to her, but she’s worried. He keeps losing his train of thought every sentence or two, and Riley would stake her best laptop on him having a bad concussion. He is able to drag himself and one of the tac team members out of the rubble.

Riley and Leela make it to the site before even the EMTs – all alphabet agency personnel – do, and they stare aghast at the wreckage before finding Latif with Chenlong’s body, Bozer, and three of the TAC team members. 

Riley beelines to Bozer and hugs him hard for just a moment. She feels him tense in pain and then slowly ease. “Go!” he tells her, and yep, she was right on the concussion – he is swaying in her grasp, his eyes not quite managing to focus. “Find Mac!”

She goes, following Leela through the wreckage. Other EMTs are on their tail, sifting through the rubble for survivors and bodies.

It goes in spurts. They find three more dead bodies almost on top of each other: Abbas, and two of Kovacs’ men. Steve, unconscious and ghastly with blood from a cut over his eye. Theo and Siyang, bruised and barely conscious under some pillars and beams. One of Kovac’s men, alive but with both legs broken. Jack, finally, bloodied, wheezing in pain from a piece of rebar through his leg and bruises blossoming all over him. 

They don’t find Mac.

Riley doesn’t tell Jack, at first, and while the EMTs are patching everyone up (and taking Theo, whose lung had collapsed, to the hospital. Leela, at Riley’s urging, goes with him.) she directs the teams to scour through the rubble once more in hopes that they had just missed him in the darkness and dirt.

_They don’t find Mac._

There is, in fact, no sign of him anywhere.

“Tell me everyone’s out, Ri!” Jack calls to her from the stretcher where EMTs are working over him. Bozer’s stretcher is aligned next to him, and he has stretched out to hold on to Jack’s wrist. “Where’s Mac, Riley?”

Her face is ashy grey. “He’s not here.” 

“You mean his body…?” Jack is already visibly shaking.

“No, Jack. There’s no sign of him here at all,” she says.

Bozer’s eyes are closed, but tears leak out anyway.

“They took him,” Jack realizes, eyes closing in horror. “Holy shit.”

Steve next to them is struggling into consciousness. “Saw them,” he slurs.

“Woah, easy big guy,” Riley says, coming to his side with her water bottle. She helps him drink and eases him back onto the stretcher. “Okay. Tell us what you saw, Steve.”

Steve’s face is pinched with a headache and stiff with clotted blood, but his eyes are growing clearer. “The two guys were hidden in some kinda hideyhole and popped out right after the explosion and snagged him. They knew who they were looking for – they barely even looked at me.”

“More leverage?” Siyang rasps, her grief apparent in her ravaged face.

“Why more, though, if they’ve already got your boy? And why Mac, if they just wanted more leverage?” Bozer asks, his eyes still squinched shut.

“They need him for something,” Jack husks out. “Kovac is planning something and he needs Mac.”

Riley’s face is sober. “And they’ve got a hell of a head start.”

**Author's Note:**

> I want Jack back, dammit. So much so that I'm actually willing to try my hand at a multi-chapter fic, which I haven't done in years. Wish me luck!


End file.
